THE  CHURCH 

OF  THE 

OPEN  COUNTRY 


WARREN  H.  WILSON 


"1^/ 


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FORWARD    MISSION    STUDY    COURSES 

EDITED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE 

MISSIONARY    EDUCATION    MOVEMENT 
OF   THE  UNITED   STATES  AND   CANADA 


THE   CHURCH   OF   THE 
OPEN   COUNTRY 


N.B. — Special  helps  and  denominational  mission  study  literature 
for  this  course  can  be  obtained  by  corresponding  with  the 
Secretary  of  your  mission  board  or  society. 


WARREN   H.  WILSON 


THE  CHURCH 

O  F    TH  E 

OPEN    COUNTRY 

A  Study  of  the  Church  for  the 
Working  Farmer 

BY 

WARREN    H.  WILSON 

AUTHOR  OF  "QUAKER  HILL" 


NEW  YORK:    EATON  &  MAINS 
CINCINNATI:    JENNINGS  &   GRAHAM 


Copyright,  191  i,  bv 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT 

Nkw  York 


8\/ 


TO    MY    WIFE 

WITH  WHOM  EVERY  MEMORY  OF  THE  COUNTRY 
IS  ASSOCIATED 


0 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 

BY  L.   H.  BAILEY 


I  Stand  in  the  fields, 
Where  the  wide  earth  yields 

Her  bounties  of  fruit  and  grain; 
Where  the  furrows  turn 
Till  the  plowshares  burn 

As  they  come  'round  and  'round  again; 
Where  the  workers  pray 
^       With  their  tools  all  day 
.  In  sunshine  and  shadow  and  rain. 

And  I  bid  them  tell 
Of  the  crops  they  sell 

And  speak  of  the  work  they  have  done; 
I  speed  every  man 
In  his  hope  and  plan 

And  follow  his  day  with  the  sun; 
And  grasses  and  trees, 
The  birds  and  the  bees 

I  know  and  I  feel  ev'ry  one. 

And  out  of  it  all 
As  the  seasons  fall 

I  build  my  great  temple  alway; 
I  point  to  the  skies. 
But  my  footstone  lies 

In  commonplace  work  of  the  day; 
For  I  preach  the  worth 
Of  the  native  earth — 

To  love  and  to  work  is  to  pray. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

Preface xiii 

I   Rural  Decay  and  Repair  i 

II   Church  and  Community 21 

III  Schools  for  Country  Life  47 

IV  Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  "jj 

V  Cooperation  and  Federation  99 

VI    Poverty  and  Prosperity  125 

VII   The  Principle  of  Service 153 

VIII   Leadership  of  the  Community 175 

Questions  and  References   203 

APPENDIXES 

A  How  Denmark  Did  It  217 

B   Bibliography    220 

Index    227 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Warren  H.  Wilson  Frontispiece 

Pioneer  Cabin  Page    8 

Pioneer  Family "  8 

Exterior  and  Interior  of  Country  School "  i6 

Renter's  Barn  and  Cabin  "  38 

Model  Rural  School,  Knox  County,  Missouri "  52 

Centralized  School,  Indiana "  54 

Centralized  School,  Ohio "  54 

John  Swaney  School,  Putnam  County,  Illinois "  56 

Making  a  Community  Park "  92 

John  Frederic  Oberlin  "  104 

Grange  Hall "  no 

Thoroughbred  Stock  on  a  Modern  Farm "  150 

Presbyterian  Church,  Cazenovia,  New  York "  156 

Church  Erected  One  Year  Ago  at  a  Cost  of  $4,000  ...  "  166 

Saturday  Afternoon  in  Town "  178 

Wild  Animal  Show  , "  180 

N.  F.  S.  Grundtvig "  218 


PREFACE 

There  are  not  a  few  who  ask  the  question, 
"  What  is  the  use  of  the  Church  in  the  open  coun- 
try?" Some  of  them  have  through  a  defective 
training  learned  to  value  their  own  souls  dear  and 
the  Church  very  cheaply.  Having  secured  a  sort  of 
fire  insurance  against  the  next  world,  they  care 
nothing  for  an  efficient  Church  in  this  world.  But 
the  religious  history  of  the  country  community 
demonstrates  that  an  efficient  Church  is  necessary  to 
the  salvation  of  souls.  Others  there  are  who  hold, 
as  a  matter  of  theory,  that  all  rural  institutions 
should  be  assembled  at  the  population  centers,  pre- 
sumably at  the  railway  stations,  and  that  ultimately 
the  farmers  will  follow  their  stores,  schools,  and 
churches,  and  will  live  in  congested  villages;  going 
out  mornings  to  their  fields,  and  returning  in  the 
evening  to  sleep.  But  the  course  of  American  his- 
tory indicates  no  such  future  peopling  of  the  land. 
It  becomes  the  Church  to  serve  the  farmer  where 
he  lives. 

An  increasing  number  of  American  farmers  are 
under  economic  pressure.  They  cannot  secure  land, 
and  they  have  little  ownership  in  productive  tools. 
They,  too,  ask  the  question  as  to  the  utility  of  the 
Church  in  the  country.  They  feel  that  they  cannot 
afford  anything  but  necessities.     It  is  the  purpose 


xiv  Preface 

of  these  chapters  to  describe  the  Church  which  is  a 
necessity  to  the  poor.  In  the  open  country  four 
farmers  out  of  ten  are  renters.  The  future  of  the 
Church  is  with  them.  Yet  they  are  to-day  included 
in  the  membership  of  the  churches  in  the  smallest 
proportions  of  all  men  in  the  country.  To  give 
them  the  gospel  is  the  acute  problem  of  the  Church 
in  the  open  country. 

I  am  indebted,  for  help  in  the  preparing  of  this 
book,  above  all  to  Miss  Anna  B.  Taft,  without 
whose  help  it  would  have  been  impossible;  and  to 
my  loyal  associates  in  the  day's  work,  every  one  of 
whom  has  given  an  essential  part  to  a  task  com- 
pleted in  the  midst  of  travel  and  teaching. 

Warren  H.  Wilson. 
,  New  York,  October  25,  1911. 


RURAL  DECAY  AND  REPAIR 


The  well-read  town  dweller  has  more  to  learn  about  the  social 
problems  of  the  farm  than  the  well-read  farmer  has  to  learn  about 
the  problems  of  the  town.  Each,  however,  ought  to  know  the  other's 
problems,  for  the  problems  of  each  are  the  problems  of  the  other. 
They  are  all  problems  of  the  nation.  As  long  as  all  men,  however, 
derive  their  living  from  the  soil,  so  long  will  the  problems  of  the 
farmer  be  the  fundamental  problems  of  the  nation.  Until  recently 
on  account  of  the  great  development  in  industrial  conditions,  the 
problems  of  the  town  and  the  city  have  seemed  most  insistent;  but 
now  the  more  fundamental  problems — the  problems  of  the  agricul- 
turist— are  making  themselves  heard. — The  Outlook 

We  conclude,  then,  that  the  farm  problem  consists  in  maintaining 
upon  our  farms  a  class  of  people  who  have  succeeded  in  procuring 
for  themselves  the  highest  possible  class  status,  not  only  in  the 
industrial,  but  in  the  political  and  the  social  order — a  relative  status, 
moreover,  that  is  measured  by  the  demands  of  American  ideals.  The 
farm  problem  thus  connects  itself  with  the  whole  question  of  demo- 
cratic civilization.  This  is  not  mere  platitude.  For  we  cannot  prop- 
erly judge  the  significance  and  the  relation  of  the  different  industrial 
activities  of  our  farmers,  and  especially  the  value  of  the  various  social 
agencies  for  rural  betterment,  except  by  the  standard  of  class  status. 
It  is  here  that  we  seem  to  find  the  only  satisfactory  philosophy  of 
rural   progress. — K.   L.  Butteriield 

The  patriotic  American,  who  thinks  of  the  life  of  the  nation  rather 
than  of  the  individual,  will,  if  he  looks  beneath  the  surface,  discern 
in  this  God-prospered  country  symptoms  of  rural  decadence  fraught 
with  danger  to  national  efficiency. — Horace  Plunkett 

In  the  United  States  it  should  be  remembered  that  nowadays  peace 
strength  is  quite  as  important  as  war  strength,  and  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned whether  there  can  be  any  sustained  industrial  efficiency  where 
the  great  body  of  workers  who  conduct  the  chief — the  only  absolutely 
necessary — industry  are  wasting  the  resources  at  their  command  by 
bad  husbandry. — Horace  Plunkett 


RURAL  DECAY  AND  REPAIR 

Widespread  Untoward  Conditions.  It  is  the 
common  opinion  of  rural  leaders  that  country  life 
in  America  has  fallen  out  of  repair.  The  house- 
hold, the  church,  the  school,  and  the  store  in  the 
country  show  the  effect  of  change.  They  are  not 
what  they  were  twenty-five  years  ago.  These 
changes  are  seen  all  over  the  United  States,  with 
slight  local  variation.  They  are  uniform  from 
Maine  to  Mississippi.  Young  people  are  leaving 
the  country  for  the  city,  teachers  of  country  schools 
move  almost  every  year,  and  many  ministers  have 
despaired  of  the  country  Church. 

National  Commission.  The  Country  Life  Com- 
mission, in  their  report  to  President  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  in  1908,  made  this  a  national  issue. 
Writers  before  that  date  had  pictured  it  in  terms  of 
local  degeneracy.  The  decay  of  families  and  the 
sinking  of  communities  into  degeneracy  had  shocked 
and  alarmed.  This  earlier  literature  concerned 
New  England  alone,  and  found  the  causes  to  be  so- 
cial. The  Commission,  of  which  Liberty  H.  Bailey 
was  Chairman,  pressed  the  inquiry  deeper  into  the 
economic  welfare  of  the  people.  They  found  the 
causes  in  the  living  conditions  of  the  people,  and 

3 


4  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

their  summons  has  aroused  all  friends  of  the  open 
country  to  work  together  for  "  better  farming,  bet- 
ter business,  better  living." 

Writers  and  Proposed  Remedies.  This  contrast 
between  the  early  country  life  movement  of  New 
England  and  the  present  national  country  life  move- 
ment is  well  expressed  in  the  two  books  which  may 
be  called  the  best  books  on  the  subject.  They  are 
Anderson's  The  Country  Town,  published  in  1906, 
two  years  before  the  Commission  report  was  pub- 
lished, and  Plunkett's  The  Rural  Life  Problem  in 
the  United  States,  published  in  19 10,  two  years 
after  that  momentous  report  was  published.  Each 
book  is  national  in  its  message,  though  Anderson 
frankly  wrote  from  a  New  England  study  window, 
and  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  from  an  Irish  gentleman's 
country  house :  and  each  writer  has  grasped  the  fun- 
damental processes  of  American  rural  life.  But  the 
last  chapter  of  The  Country  Town  pleads  for  "  The 
Church  as  a  Social  Center  " ;  while  the  message  of 
The  Rural  Life  Problem  is  that  "  There  must  be 
better  farming,  better  business,  and  better  living. 
These  three  are  equally  necessary,  but  better  busi- 
ness must  come  first."  Dr.  Anderson,  out  of  the 
New  England  experience,  alarmed  by  rural  decay, 
summons  us  to  social  service,  but  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett,  from  the  experience  of  the  Old  World, 
and  the  wider  investigation  of  American  conditions, 
recognizes  that  the  causes  of  rural  decay  are  eco- 
nomic, and  demands  an  initial  economic  remedy. 

Four  Types  and  Periods.     The  decay  of  rural 


E.'^ 


'1 

Rural  Decay  and  Repair 


life  in  America  is  seen  in  four  types :  first  individual- 
ism, second  degenerate  groups,  third  speculation, 
and  fourth  exploited  lands.  Each  one  of  these  is 
an  enemy  of  the  Church,  and  retards  the  growth  of 
religion  in  the  country.  Each  one  of  them  arises, 
not  out  of  the  Church  itself,  but  out  of  the  social 
economy  of  the  country.  They  are  all  results  of 
causes  which  affect  the  farmer  in  the  process  of 
getting  a  living.  Four  periods  of  American  country 
life  are  seen  in  these  four  kinds  of  decay :  the 
pioneer,  or  solitary  farmer;  the  land-farmer,  or 
household  farmer;  the  exploiter,  or  speculative 
farmer;  and  the  husbandman,  or  organized  farmer, 
who  is  fighting  the  present  exploitation  of  land. 
These  four  great  American  countrymen  have  fol- 
lowed one  another  across  the  stage  of  the  open 
country.  They  have  built  their  churches  and  their 
communities  like  unto  themselves.  The  spirit  of 
the  future  is  one  of  organizing  the  farmers  and 
federating  the  churches.  These  types  of  men  and 
communities  have  been  successive.  They  appear  in 
the  order  named.  They  are  cumulative,  and  the 
later  communities  contain  all  the  earlier  types.  The 
troubles  with  the  country  Church  are  those  of 
transition  from  household  farming  to  organized 
farming. 

Individualist  Phase.  Individualism  in  American 
country  life  has  been  marked.  Farmer  folk  will  not 
combine,  and  they  recognize  few  ties  outside  of  a 
man's  duty  to  himself.  In  the  older  settlements 
the  farmer  is  very  independent.    He  is  not  used  to 


lIV^^v 


6  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

obeying  any  one,  and  he  refuses  to  respond  to  com- 
mands from  whatever  quarter  they  may  come.  He 
follows  leaders,  and  not  principles.  He  looks  upon 
the  world  as  made  up  of  persons,  and  nothing  else. 
This  individualism  has  been  the  blessing  of  the  few 
and  the  bane  of  the  many  in  New  England,  for  it 
has  caused  the  creation  of  a  few  bright  and  brainy 
people,  while  it  has  neglected  great  numbers  of 
ordinary  people.  The  degeneracy  of  the  rural 
stock  of  New  England  in  many  places  has  been  du6 
to  the  selection  of  the  favored  individuals  for 
emigration  to  the  West  and  to  the  cities;  and  the 
abandonment  of  all  the  weaker  members  in  the  com- 
munities.^ 

Some  of  Its  Effects.  Individualism  has  been  a 
factor  in  the  dissolution  of  the  rural  household. 
The  boy  and  girl  have  left  home  to  seek  a  personal 
fortune.  They  have  consulted  personal  pleasure 
rather  than  family  advantage  and  have  gone  to  the 
town  or  city  to  live,  because  there  a  better  wage 
could  be  secured  and  more  social  pleasures  enjoyed. 


^  The  sensational  picture  by  the  Rev.  Rollin  Lynde  Harte, 
which  appeared  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXIII,  under 
the  title  "  A  New  England  Hill  Town,"  and  the  article  by 
President  William  DeWitt  Hyde  of  Bowdoin  College  on  the 
"  Impending  Paganism  in  New  England,"  called  public  atten- 
tion to  the  degenerate  sections  of  New  England.  Dr.  Josiah 
Strong  pointed  out  in  succeeding  years  the  depletion  of  rural 
communities  in  States  as  far  west  as  Illinois.  Other  writers 
depicted  these  processes,  especially  as  they  had  roots  in  New 
England.  An  excellent  summary  of  them  is  in  the  chapters 
on  "  The  Extent  of  Rural  Depletion "  and  "  Local  Degen- 
eracy," in  Dr.  Wilbert  L.  Anderson's  book,  The  Country 
Town. 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  7 

The  churches  of  the  community  have  been  multi- 
plied by  emphasis  upon  individual  preference. 
Often  one  elderly  church  officer  will  insist  upon  the 
planting  or  the  maintaining  of  a  country  church  not 
needed  in  an  overchurched  community.  Generally 
speaking,  the  problem  of  too  many  churches  is  due 
to  the  doctrine  of  personal  salvation  carried  out 
to  the  extreme  of  personal  selfishness.  Yet  the 
reason  for  the  abuse  is  not  in  the  doctrine,  but  in 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  who  believe 
that  doctrine  must  needs  work  in  getting  a  living, 
A  Deep-seated  Evil.  American  life  is  still  af- 
fected by  pioneer  days.  The  pioneer  was  lonely  in 
his  way  of  life,  and  he  was  lonely  in  his  thoughts. 
He  had  to  work  and  fight  for  himself.  So  he  prayed 
for  himself.  Self -protection  was  his  battle  all  day 
long,  and  soul  salvation  was  his  thought  at  night. 
He  thought  and  wrought  and  fought  all  the  week 
that  he  might  survive,  and  on  Sunday  he  craved 
only  to  hear  how  he  might  survive  death.  Other 
men  have  the  same  thought,  but  the  pioneer  had 
it  to  the  exclusion  ©f  nearly  all  social  feelings.  The 
individualist  has  this  exclusive  care  of  his  own  soul, 
his  own  children,  his  own  property,  and  his  own 
pleasure.  So  deep-seated  is  this  evil  in  American 
rural  life  that  it  is  a  foe  to  the  progress  of  people 
in  the  open  country.  Cooperation  and  combination 
are  nowadays  the  principles  on  which  business  suc- 
cess, educational  advance,  or  religious  efficiency  are 
based.  None  of  these  is  possible  among  farmers 
who  are  individualized.    That  which  in  pioneer  days 


8  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

was  a  means  of  survival  has  become,  in  our  time, 
a  sign  of  retrograde  living,  and  a  cause  of  rural 
decay. 

A  Separating  Force.  Here  is  the  first  clue  to  the 
mystery  of  overchurched  communities.  The  inde- 
pendence of  pioneer  days,  once  a  noble  trait,  has 
become  a  base  form  of  decay.  Generated  in  the  soli- 
tary life  of  the  woods,  it  has  become  a  selfish 
philosophy  in  days  long  after  the  forests  are  gone. 
It  makes  country  people  suspicious  of  one  another, 
and  causes  them  to  live  in  a  sort  of  aggressive  loneli- 
ness, the  very  opposite  of  a  Christian  state,  and  the 
active  enemy  of  social  service. 

Household  Group  Phase.  The  second  form  of 
rural  decay  is  group  degeneracy.  The  second  period 
of  American  rural  life  saw  the  perfecting  of  the 
household  group.  From  1800  to  1890  the  life  on 
the  farm  was  represented  in  the  household  perfec- 
tion of  Whittier's  "  Snowbound."  In  those  days 
the  farmer  was  no  longer  living  a  lonely  life.  He 
had  neighbors,  but  his  household  was  a  complete 
unit  in  itself.  He  had  in  his  wife,  children,  and 
the  grandparents,  the  maiden  aunt  of  the  family, 
and  the  hired  man,  a  perfect  little  society.  The 
whole  earth  might  in  those  days  have  been  de- 
populated: and  if  there  had  been  left  one  farmer's 
household  in  Ohio  or  New  York,  they  could  have 
repeopled  the  earth,  and  could  have  restored  the 
arts,  the  religion,  and  the  learning  of  mankind. 
The  household  farmer  farmed  the  first  values  of 
the  land  which  lay  upon  the  surface.     He  was  not 


PIONEER  CABIN 
PIONEER  FAMILY 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  9 

troubled  with  the  depletion  of  the  soil,  the  rotation 
of  the  crops,  or  the  problem  of  nitrogen.  He  is 
the  farmer  of  whom  we  think  when  we  look  back 
to  the  country  life  of  the  older  days. 

Weakened  by  Migration.  This  perfect  group 
has  suffered  severely  in  the  past  twenty  years.  The 
church  and  the  school,  which  are  dependent  upon  it, 
have  suffered  with  it.  The  picture  at  the  World's 
Fair  in  Chicago  entitled  "  Breaking  Home  Ties  " 
depicted  the  crumbling  of  the  family  unit  in  the 
departure  of  the  son  from  the  farmhouse,  never  to 
return.  The  city  has  claimed  a  great  share ;  and  the 
West  has  enticed  many  away  with  its  opportunities. 
They  have  gone,  not  as  in  earlier  days,  in  families, 
compacted  by  common  hardships,  but  person  by  per- 
son; and  the  family  group  in  the  country  has  been 
weakened  by  their  migration. 

Discouraged  Remnants.  Throughout  much  of 
New  England  the  weakening  of  family  life  is  evi- 
dent. The  depleted  households  cling  to  small  and 
unproductive  farms,  by  a  fraction  of  their  former 
strength.  I  remember  driving,  in  my  early  min- 
istry, from  a  prosperous  farming  section  into  a 
weakened  community,  whose  lands  had  a  lowered 
value  because  they  lay  too  far  from  the  railroad. 
My  path  to  a  chapel  service  on  Sunday  afternoon 
lay  past  seven  successive  farmhouses  in  each  of 
which  lived  one  member  of  a  family,  clinging  in 
solitary  misery  to  a  small  acreage  which  had  a 
few  years  earlier  supported  a  household.  In  that 
same  neighborhood  was  one  group  of  descendants 


lo  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

of  two  brothers,  which  had  in  two  generations  pro- 
duced sixteen  suicides.  "  They  could  not  stand 
trouble,"  the  neighbors  said.  The  lowered  value  of 
their  land,  with  consequent  burdens,  humiliation, 
and  strain,  had  crushed  them.  The  very  ability  and 
distinction  of  the  family  in  the  earlier  period  had  the 
effect,  by  contrast,  to  sink  them  lower  down. 

Persisting  Primitive  Types.  There  are  families 
in  the  older  States  which  have  preserved  the  sim- 
plicity and  independence  of  the  pioneer  days.  They 
do  not  buy  and  sell,  but  the  men  make  nearly  every- 
thing needed  for  the  household  group.  They  live 
in  the  simplicity  of  earlier  days  and  by  simplifying 
their  wants  and  multiplying  their  crafts  they  live 
very  near  to  the  soil  and  very  far  from  the  world 
market.  You  may  call  them  degenerate.  You  may 
call  them  primitive.  The  effect  is  the  same.  They 
are  not  of  the  present.  So  far  as  the  religious  life  of 
the  community  is  concerned  they  are  aliens.  A 
primitive  type  which  survives  to  a  later  day  is  es- 
sentially degenerate. 

A  Demoralizing  Menace.  A  great  deal  of  the 
political  trouble  in  the  country  towns  of  the  east- 
ern States  is  due  to  the  buying  and  selling  of  votes. 
Much  of  the  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  laws  against 
the  saloon  is  due  to  this  alien  and  degenerate  stock. 
Dr.  Wilbert  L.  Anderson  has  shown  that  the  railroad 
and  the  city  have  generally  sifted  out  these  weaker 
members  of  the  community.  They  have  been  car- 
ried into  the  city  and  sunk  in  the  whirlpool  of  the 
slum.     It  remains,  however,  for  every  New  Eng- 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  1 1 

land  church  to  plan  for  the  ministry  which  it  can 
render  to  degenerate  households,  for  the  moral 
tone  of  the  whole  community  is  lowered  by  their 
presence.  They  are  vessels  filled  with  a  bitter  and 
poisonous  liquor.  They  put  the  cup  of  impurity  to 
the  lips  of  the  children  of  the  cleanest  families. 
The  punishment  of  one  member  or  the  removal  of 
another  member  of  such  groups  as  this  does  not  end 
their  virulent  power  for  evil.  A  group,  especially  a 
household,  has  power  to  perpetuate  itself,  and  these 
families  are  the  waste  of  the  noblest  period  in 
American  agricultural  history. 

Speculative  Phase.  The  third  form  of  rural 
decay  is  the  process  of  farm  speculation.  Specula- 
tion is  a  valuing  of  things  in  cash.  It  is  an  effort 
to  "  make  money  "  without  labor.  In  the  house- 
hold period  of  farming,  about  the  '80s  and  '90s  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  country  people  began  to 
value  their  property  no  longer  as  homes  but  as 
assets.  A  price  was  put  upon  the  acre.  The  farm 
home  was  offered  finally  for  sale.  Remaining  still 
a  farmer,  the  man  has  moved  to  the  westward,  or 
to  the  eastward,  from  the  central  States,  as  the 
rising  values  of  land  have  tempted  him.  The 
vicious  and  artificial  character  of  his  social  life  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  he  has  been  profiting 
through  the  rising  price  of  land  in  a  time  when 
the  actual  value  of  land  is  falling.  An  Illinois 
farmer  told  the  writer,  "  I  used  to  raise  ninety 
bushels  of  corn  per  acre  on  my  farm.  I  can  now 
with  better  machinery  only  raise  forty-five  bushels 


12'  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

per  acre.  At  the  same  time  my  land  has  increased 
in  value  from  thirty-five  dollars  per  acre,  when  it 
was  producing  ninety  bushels,  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  per  acre  when  it  is  producing  forty- 
five  bushels.  The  only  thing  that  saved  me  was 
the  rising  price  of  farm  products."  This  is  a 
vicious  and  artificial  system.  While  it  is  not  all 
evil,  it  has  left  a  deposit  of  speculative  influence 
in  the  country.  Churches  and  schools  in  the  dis- 
trict in  which  this  system  of  the  speculative  farmer 
prevails  are  weakened,  the  most  of  them  are  stand- 
ing still,  and  the  number  of  those  which  fail  is  as 
great  as  the  number  of  those  which  are  succeeding. 
Effect  of  Abundant  Cash.  Rural  decay  through 
speculation  shows  itself  in  those  regions  in  which 
the  farmer  sees  before  him  a  great  profit  through 
the  sale  of  his  properties  and  is  transformed  by  this 
prospect  into  an  idler.  In  southwestern  Pennsyl- 
vania the  farm  lands  are  underlaid  by  beds  of  bitu- 
minous coal.  The  farmers  of  that  section  are  of  the 
household  farming  era.  They  have  sold  the  coal 
under  their  land  very  generally  and  have  received 
high  prices  for  it.  Sometimes  the  companies  which 
now  own  the  coal  wait  for  years  before  mining  it. 
Meantime,  the  farmers  gradually  have  loosened 
and  relaxed  their  methods  of  tilling  the  soil.  After 
years  of  meager  living  they  have  come  into  pos- 
session of  plenty  of  money.  The  older  men  main- 
tain the  industry  of  a  lifetime,  but  imperceptibly 
the  whole  household,  especially  the  younger  mem- 
bers, show  the  corrupting  influence  of  mere  cash  as 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  13 

opposed  to  an  economic  system.  The  ministers  of 
that  region  and  leading  church  people  have  come  to 
recognize  the  impending  destruction  of  their 
churches.  They  are  praying  and  they  are  asking 
for  light  as  to  the  methods  to  be  used  in  the  era 
just  upon  them. 

Test  of  the  Incoming  Foreigners.  As  soon  as  the 
coal  company  begins  to  operate  its  properties  it 
brings  into  the  region  great  numbers  of  miners. 
These  men  are  foreigners.  The  bosses  are  from 
the  British  Isles  or  from  the  older  stock  of  immi- 
grants. The  miners  themselves  are  from  south- 
eastern Europe,  of  those  types  of  Europeans  most 
alien  to  American  customs  and  institutions.  No 
severer  strain  can  be  put  upon  Christian  institu- 
tions or  upon  public  schools  than  such  an  invasion. 
Weakened  already  by  the  decay  of  the  speculative 
process,  these  churches  are  ill  prepared  to  minister 
to  the  needy  foreigner.  They  are  too  feeble  to 
teach  the  masterful  industrial  leaders  their  duty  to 
the  poor  and  to  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Question  of  Remedies.  The  remedy  for  this 
decay  is  the  exaltation  of  giving,  when  the  farmers 
first  become  rich,  and  the  organizing  of  benevolence 
through  community  enterprises.  My  purpose  here 
is  to  describe  the  process.  The  remedy  is  seldom 
at  hand.  The  trouble  is  that  these  changes  through 
speculation  are  too  swift  or  their  slow  processes 
are  too  subtle  for  religious  men  to  understand 
them,  and  to  deal  with  them.  The  whole  countryside 
is  often  eaten  with  the  social  corrosion  of  the  ex- 


l4  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ploitation  of  land  for  coal,  for  iron,  or  other  specu- 
lative commodities. 

Exploitation  Phase.  The  fourth  form  of  decay 
is  in  the  exploited  lands  and  people.  Farm  life  is 
like  all  other  social  life,  subject  to  exploitation.  Its 
values  are  seized  by  the  masterful  and  by  the  selfish 
to  increase  their  gains.  The  strong  are  made  more 
powerful  and  the  M^eak  are  ground  into  the  earth. 
The  country  communities  in  all  the  eastern  States 
show  the  effects  of  exploitation.  They  are  almost 
hopelessly  weakened  through  the  depletion  of  the 
soil.  In  New  England  there  are  communities  in 
which  the  land  has  been  "  ryed  off."  ^  Other  towns 
have  been  exhausted  by  raising  tobacco  year  after 
year  without  fertilization. 

Example  of  Soil  Exhaustion.  Twenty  years  ago 
in  Groton,  Massachusetts,  an  old  farmer,  whose 
years  and  wisdom  had  earned  him  the  title  of 
"  Uncle  Rufus,"  took  me  to  the  top  of  a  hill  and 
pointing  to  the  sandy  stretches  below  us  said, 
"  Young  man,  you  wouldn't  believe  that  when  I  was 
your  age  I  worked  in  fields  of  tobacco  and  of  rye 
down  there !  We  raised  big  crops  there  till  there  was 
no  more  in  the  soil.  We  never  fertilized.  Now  that 
land  only  raises  the  scrub  oak  and  stunted  pine  you 
see  down  there.     It  will  never  again  be  what  it  was." 

Example  of  Missouri  Town.  In  some  parts  of 
Missouri  the  community  has  been  blighted  by  the 
transformation  of  farm  land  into  mining  land,  and 

*  Land  that  has  been  robbed  of  its  fertility  by  continuous 
crops  of  rye. 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  15 

after  the  process  is  done  there  remains  an  impover- 
ished stock,  the  leavings  of  a  strong  population, 
who  themselves  ousted  the  farmer  for  the  sake  of 
mineral  wealth.  Going  on  to  other  mining  com- 
munities, they  have  left  the  weaker  members  of  their 
own  households  to  fester  socially  and  to  decay 
morally  in  a  depleted  and  impoverished  place.  The 
following  quotation  from  the  letter  of  an  investiga- 
tor in  Missouri  is  a  picture  of  such  a  mining  town. 
It  shows  the  close  relation  between  the  impoverished 
soil  and  the  exploited  people.  It  is  a  luminous  illus- 
tration of  the  close  relation  between  economic, 
moral,  and  religious  life.  "  It  is  a  half-deserted 
mining  town.  The  reason  it  isn't  all  deserted  is 
because  half  the  population  were  too  lazy  to  move. 
They  lie  around  in  dilapidated,  unpainted,  filthy 
hovels  from  daylight  to  dark.  There  is  a  school- 
house  there:  I  mean  there  is  a  building  there  in 
which  children  go  to  school.  It  is  25  by  50  feet  in 
size.  It  is  frame;  several  square  yards  of  weather- 
boarding  have  been  torn  from  it;  its  door  has  been 
kicked  in.  Of  its  ten  windows  six  have  been  com- 
pletely knocked  out.  Many  panes  of  the  remaining 
four  are  broken.  The  blackboard  is  half  demol- 
ished. Some  of  the  seats  are  torn  loose.  Filth  is  on 
the  floor.  There  is  a  road  between  Danforth  and 
Connellsville  on  which  I  had  to  walk  my  horse  every 
step.  On  the  way  I  met  another  man  on  a  horse. 
He  looked  at  me  suspiciously  and  remarked  that  no 
one  ever  traveled  that  road  unless  he  was  lost. 
There  are  4,766  people  in  this  township.     Less  than 


1 6  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

300  go  to  church ;  and  the  churches !  Heaven  help 
them !  Offering  denominationahsm  and  theology  to 
men  who  have  practically  no  decent  forms  of  social 
gathering  or  recreation !  The  motion  picture  shows, 
held  in  buildings  fit  only  for  kindling  purposes,  have 
twice  as  many  people  in  a  night  as  the  churches  have 
all  week.  These  and  the  pool-rooms  and  Sunday 
baseball  games  are  the  only  places  where  men  can 
meet  out  of  working  hours." 

Four  Phases  Summarized.  One  might  summarize 
this  account  of  rural  decay  by  saying  that  there 
have  been  four  successive  types  of  countrymen,  of 
country  community,  and  of  country  church  in 
America.  These  four  are  the  solitary  farmer,  the 
household  farmer,  the  speculative  farmer,  and  the 
organized  farmer. 

Work  with  Present  Forces.  The  repair  of  coun- 
try life  can  only  be  made  in  modern  terms.  One 
cannot  rebuild  the  past.  It  is  impossible  to  restore 
the  pioneer,  much  as  his  virtues  are  to  be  admired, 
because  he  was  made  by  the  wild  mountain  and  the 
lonely  prairie,  which  are  no  more.  The  household 
organization  of  country  life  was  created  by  a  state  of 
affairs  in  which  the  household  made  all  that  it 
consumed.  It  was  complete  in  itself.  This  can 
never  come  again,  because  the  market  to-day  is  the 
world,  and  the  farming  class  will  not  go  back  to 
manufacturing  all  their  necessities  on  their  own 
premises.  We  cannot  restore  the  household  type 
of  farming,  though  its  moral  and  spiritual  values 
were  very  great. 


EXTERIOR  AXD  INTERIOR  OF  A  COUNTRY  SCHOOL 
NO   FOUNDATION,    SIDING   BROKEN,    DOOR   CRACKED 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  17 

Scientific  Farming  the  Basis.  Scientific  farming 
is  the  clue  to  the  repair  of  country  life.  Not  merely 
for  profit,  but  for  the  building  up  of  an  intelligent 
organized  country  population,  scientific  agriculture 
will  be  of  use  in  the  country.  It  must  be  a  gospel 
of  the  mind  and  soul,  and  on  this  new  basis 
churches,  schools,  and  whole  communities  will  be 
erected. 

Introduces  New  Method  of  Life.  The  beginning 
of  this  process  is  already  made.  The  government 
of  life  in  the  country  by  scientific  standards  is  ac- 
complishing much.  Farmers  who  are  obliged  to  be 
scientific  in  order  to  raise  any  crop  out  of  depleted 
soil  are  fighting  the  battle  with  adversity,  using 
scientific  agriculture  as  a  military  necessity.  But 
when  the  necessity  is  past,  they  will  have  learned 
a  new  method  of  life.  Sanitary  reform  is  coming 
also  in  the  country,  based  upon  exact  scientific  re- 
search. Throughout  the  Southern  mountains  the 
hope  is  entertained  by  teachers  and  social  workers 
that  the  campaign  against  the  hook-worm  will  be 
successful.  Already  its  results  there  are  astonish- 
ing, and  the  victory  against  this  enemy  of  social 
progress  among  Southern  people  is  in  sight,  though 
far  off. 

Country  Struggle  Changing  the  South.  The  fight 
in  the  South  against  the  boll  weevil  is  proving  a 
wonderful  social  discipline.  It  is  organizing  the 
people  of  the  whole  South  to  a  sense  of  the  value  of 
science  in  the  reorganization  of  country  life.  This 
victory  is  coming  in  two  forms.     It  is  compelling 


1 8  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  farmer  to  till  the  crop  with  energy  and  precision. 
He  can  win  a  good  crop  by  forced  culture  and  reap 
it  before  the  boll  weevil  has  matured  sufficiently 
to  destroy  it.  But  a  greater  discipline  is  felt 
throughout  the  South.  The  long-needed  diversify- 
ing of  Southern  crops  will  come  by  the  destruction 
of  the  cotton  crop  in  some  sections. 

Approaching  Farmer  Organization.  Correspond- 
ing to  science  as  a  discipline  for  agriculture,  the 
organization  of  country  people  is  necessary.  Pre- 
cisely as  the  labor  unions  have  organized  wage- 
earners,  the  farmers  must  organize.  Not  in  the 
same  terms  nor  with  the  same  demands,  but  with 
equal  thoroughness,  and  with  the  same  subjection  of 
the  individual  to  the  union  of  his  fellows.  These 
organizations  which  are  now  existing  will  have 
a  variety  of  purposes.  They  are  not  merely  for 
direct  financial  gain.  So  long  as  they  go  to  the 
root  of  the  farmer's  prosperity,  however,  they  will 
effect  the  same  ethical  and  religious  transformation. 
They  will  teach  the  farmer  to  cooperate  and  to  obey. 
They  prepare  a  way  for  the  federation  of  the 
churches,  and  the  unifying  of  every  phase  of  coun- 
try work. 

A  New  Country  Ideal.  A  new  ideal  of  country 
life  must  arise  out  of  the  present  struggle,  and 
everywhere  men  are  studying  this  ideal  in  the  com- 
munity. Its  sources  are  in  the  experience  of  the 
older  eastern  States.  New  England  was  built  un- 
der a  community  organization.  The  New  England 
town  is  a  self-governing  community  and  the  tradi- 


Rural  Decay  and  Repair  19 

tion  of  the  Town  Meeting  has  gone  westward  with 
a  migrating  population.  Pennsylvania  has  in  the 
Quakers  and  the  Mennonites  the  community  tradi- 
tion in  a  more  spiritual  form.  Disdaining  the  civil 
organization  and  caring  nothing  for  politics,  they 
formed  themselves  into  communities  by  the  genius 
of  their  religious  system.  They  controlled  the  in- 
dividual by  methods  of  their  own  and  cooperated  in 
essential  things  for  the  common  welfare. 

Community  in  Action.  The  community  is  an  old 
ideal,  born  out  of  the  experiences  of  mankind  in 
America  and  Europe,  which  expresses  to-day  the 
working  principle  of  rural  repair.  The  way  to  teach 
a  population  this  ideal  is  not  merely  to  preach  it 
and  to  describe  it,  important  as  this  is,  but  to  prac- 
tise it.  People  learn  by  what  they  do  more  than 
all  that  they  hear.  The  first  essential  in  teaching 
a  community  spirit  is  to  organize  a  community  act. 
Old  Home  Week  in  an  eastern  State  will  bring 
together  a  community  meeting,  and  the  effects  of  it 
will  be  illuminating  to  the  minds  of  all.  The  cele- 
bration of  the  holidays  of  the  year  has  power  to 
awaken  the  community  spirit,  if  this  celebration  is  in 
common  for  all.  It  is  not  enough  to  have  a  Thanks- 
giving service  in  the  church.  Indeed,  such  a  meet- 
ing may  be  a  denial  of  community  principles.  But 
the  celebration  of  Christmas,  Easter,  Memorial  Day, 
Fourth  of  July,  Labor  Day,  and  Thanksgiving 
should  be  so  public  and  should  be  in  such  terms  that 
the  whole  population  will  respond.  The  custom  of 
so  doing,  even  though  it  recurs  but  twice  a  year,  will 


:20  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

have  amazing  power  in  organizing  a  community 
:sense. 

Preacher  as  Community  Leader.  The  community 
leader  is  an  organizer.  Therefore  the  preacher  or 
teacher  should  get  his  people  to  do  the  things  which 
he  wants  them  to  believe.  For  infallibly  action 
precedes  thought,  but  when  he  has  started  the  prac- 
tise of  the  community  he  must  not  fail  to  state  the 
ideal  to  the  community.  He  must  keep  before  their 
minds  a  constructive,  consistent  community  organ- 
ization. This  will  have  persuasive  influence  over 
rthose  who  are  practising  the  thing  itself.  Little  by 
little  the  ideal  in  its  mental  forms  will  strike  into 
their  hearts,  mellowed  and  prepared  by  the  enter- 
iprises  and  the  enjoyments  of  community  practise. 
The  business  of  the  preacher  is  to  state  the  ideals 
arising  in  the  experience  of  the  people. 

Emphasis  on  Country  Values.  The  repair  of 
country  life  will  come  in  those  forms  which  give 
value  to  the  things  in  the  open  country.  The  com- 
munity must  move  and  breathe  in  joy  and  enthusi- 
asm of  the  country.  The  celebrations  must  be  of 
country  matters,  not  those  of  the  city.  It  must 
arise  as  far  as  possible  on  the  ground,  and  must  be 
essential  to  the  life  of  people  living  in  the  open 
country.  In  this  way  the  country  community  will 
mark  out  its  own  path  of  growth  and  progress. 
It  will  have  life  of  its  own  of  which  it  will  soon 
iboast,  and  the  streams  of  waste  will  be  stopped. 
The  exodus  from  the  country  will  be  turned  back 

and  the  community  will  be  built. 

* 


CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY 


Nevertheless,  the  Church  has  a  peculiarly  close  relationship  to  the 
other  rural  institutions,  and  in  fact  to  all  the  movements  of  rural 
life.  The  Church  has  not  adequately  appreciated  this  fact,  which  has 
its  origin  in  a  characteristic  feature  of  country  life;  namely,  that 
all  its  interests  are  very  intimately  bound  together.  The  work  of 
the  farm  and  of  the  household,  the  life  of  the  family,  the  amusements 
of  the  neighborhood,  the  interests  of  all  in  school,  Grange,  and  Church 
are  closely  intertwined. — K.  L.   Butterfield 

This  ideal  of  a  Church  which  makes  itself  a  factor  in  building 
up  a  community,  even  in  material  things,  is  not  an  impossible  ideal. 
It  has  been  realized  in  the  past  and  it  can  be  realized  again.  An 
illustrious  example  is  that  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  the  pastor  of 
the  Steinthal.  Numberless  other  examples  can  be  found  in  the  reli- 
gious orders  of  the  medieval  Church, — examples  of  communities  which 
were  made  rich  and  prosperous  by  the  teachings  and  the  example  of 
self-sacrificing  leaders.  This  ideal  will,  however,  never  be  realized 
by  a  Church  which  affects  to  despise  this  world  and  the  things  of 
this  world,  which  regards  the  world  itself  as  lost,  and  conceives  of 
its  own  mission  as  consisting  in  saving  as  many  individual  souls  as 
possible    from   the   wreck. 

If  the  Church  will  assume  that  the  world  is  not  going  to  perdition, 
that  it  is  going  to  last  for  a  long  time,  and  that  it  will  eventually  be 
a  Christian  or  a  non-Christian  world,  according  as  Christians  or  non- 
Christians  prove  themselves  more  fit  to  possess  it — according  as  they 
are  better  farmers,  better  business  men,  better  mechanics,  better 
politicians — then  the  Church  will  turn  its  attention  more  and  more 
to  the  making  of  better  and  more  progressive  farmers,  business  men, 
mechanics,  and  politicians. — Thomas  Nixon   Carver 


22 


II 

CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY 

Close  Relationship.  /The  country  church  is  mar- 
ried to  the  country  community.  That  which  affects 
the  one  affects  also  the  other.  If  the  community 
is  impoverished,  the  church  wears  a  pinched  ap- 
pearance. If  the  community  is  prosperous,  the 
church  under  normal  conditions  shows  growth  and 
self-respect.) 

Church  Shows  Community  Condition.  The  coun- 
try church  is  the  weather  vane  of  community  pros- 
perity. It  is  a  voluntary  institution,  divinely  given 
as  an  index  of  how  well  the  farmer  is  getting  on. 
The  tilling  of  the  soil  is  an  occupation  which  can- 
not be  carried  on  except  by  sober  men,  and  it  has 
never  been  maintained  in  a  population  through  suc- 
ceeding generations  except  among  religious  people. 
/  The  relation  between  work  and  worship  is  more 
evident  in  the  country  than  in  the  city,  for  rural 
life  is  simple  and  its  social  texture  is  clear  to 
the  observer.  The  working  of  cause  upon  effect  is 
plain  in  the  country.  There  are  not  so  many  dis- 
turbing or  extraneous  forces  and  there  are  but  few 
interferences  between  cause  and  effect.  The  bear- 
ing of  economic  life  upon  religious  institutions  is 

23 


24  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

much  more  evident  than  in  the  city,  because  country 
life  is  highly  organized,  but  simple. 

Community  Defined.  What  is  a  community  ?  A 
man  or  woman  in  the  country  lives  his  whole  life 
within  the  radius  of  a  team  haul  from  his  home. 
However  much  he  visits  without  this  circle,  his 
knowledge  of  the  community  is  one  hundred  times 
more  intense  and  personal  than  his  knowledge  of 
any  other  community.  In  this  small  republic  to 
which  he  is  limited  by  the  common  means  of  trans- 
portation, he  visits,  he  buys  and  sells,  he  worships, 
he  marries,  and  within  this  radius  he  buries  his 
dead. 

Common  View.  This  enables  one  to  define  the 
community  in  popular  terms,  as  a  child  might  define 
it,  as  "  the  place  where  we  live."  This  includes  local- 
ity, personal  and  social  relations,  and  vital  experi- 
ence. The  community  is  the  larger  whole  in  which 
the  members  of  a  we-group  find  satisfaction  of  their 
vital  needs.  This  means  that  the  community  is  the 
virgin  soil  of  the  Kingdom.  The  Church  when  it 
pervades  the  whole  life  of  the  community  constitutes 
with  it  a  little  republic  of  God,  because  the  whole 
life  of  the  people  in  that  community  is  lived  within 
this  range. 

Another  Definition.  Another  definition  of  a  com- 
munity is  given  by  Professor  Charles  A.  Elwood.^ 
**  A  society  is,  therefore,  a  group  of  people  living 
together  by  means  of  interstimulation  and  response. 

*  Charles  A.  Elwood,  of  the  University  of  Missouri,  in 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  191 1,  p.  835. 


Church  and  Community  25; 

What  its  total  life  is  depends  very  largely  upon  the 
attitude  of  its  members  toward  one  another.  How 
they  cooperate  depends,  therefore,  upon  common 
will,  belief,  and  opinion,  and  the  agencies  by  which 
common  will,  belief,  and  opinion  effect  social  con- 
trol. These  agencies  are  chiefly  religion,  govern- 
ment and  law,  and  education." 

Church  as  Community  Center.  The  Church,  be- 
cause of  its  relation  to  the  community,  should  be  a 
community  center.  It  can  not  exist  and  prosper 
unless  it  is  the  focus  of  the  life  of  the  community. 
Now  communities  are  of  infinitely  varied  size  and 
form.  They  are  not  perfect  circles  or  squares  or 
ellipses.  They  cannot  be  brought  down  to  any  geo- 
metrical terms.  One  uses  the  word  "  center  "  as  a 
suggestive  term,  because  there  is  no  better.  If 
the  church,  being  vitally  connected  with  the  com- 
munity, does  not  make  itself  central  to  the  life  of  the 
community,  it  will  not  continue  to  exist.  There 
may  be  several  such  centers  in  a  community,  but 
their  relation  to  the  whole  people  must  in  some  way 
be  vital,  or  they  will  pine  and  die. 

Individualist  Churches.  The  churches  of  indi- 
vidualist communities  have  served  their  people  by 
ministering  to  persons  alone.  Their  method  is  the 
preaching  of  sermons.  They  have  no  other.  The 
typical  man  in  pioneer  and  settler  days  was  an  in- 
dividualist. He  was  made  such  by  his  work  and  by 
the  lonely  struggle  of  his  life.  He  could  be  no 
other  than  what  God,  by  means  of  the  forest,  the 
vast  open  prairie,  and  the  lonely  work  at  the  furrow. 


26  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

made  him.  His  wife  spent  her  soHtary  hours  over 
the  varied  occupations  of  the  primitive  household, 
and  she  too  was  a  strong,  resourceful  individual. 
She  had  but  few  social  traits  as  compared  with  the 
modern  woman.  The  church  that  ministered  to  such 
people  could  preach  a  gospel  of  individual  salva- 
tion alone.  It  would  have  been  false  to  its  duty 
if  it  had  preached  any  other.  It  needed  no  methods 
such  as  our  later  churches  use.  It  had  the  one 
method:  the  periodic  revival  of  religion  for  indi- 
vidual souls. 

Call  for  the  Emotional.  For  the  individualist  is 
a  man  of  warm  heart,  of  passionate  interest,  of 
devoted  friendships,  and  resolute  loyalty.  To  him 
life  means  nothing  but  persons.  Therefore  the 
church  of  settler  folk  and  the  church  which  has 
pioneer  individuals  in  any  numbers  in  its  member- 
ship must  use  emotional  methods.  Of  course  if  you 
do  not  care  to  win  and  to  hold  this  kind  of  people, 
you  can  omit  the  measures  by  which  they  are  to  be 
won;  but  these  measures  are  always  emotional,  be- 
cause the  emotional,  individual  type  of  Christian 
is  produced  by  his  occupation  and  by  his  inheritance. 
He  can  be  only  what  he  is.  He  must  be  dealt 
with  in  his  own  terms.  Country  people  are  very 
many  of  them  pioneers.  The  number  of  pioneers 
is  greater  among  the  older  people  than  among  the 
younger;  but  for  some  time  to  come  the  country 
Church  will  have  to  deal  with  the  proud,  solitary, 
and  passionate  personalities  of  men  who  can  be  won 
and  can  be  served  by  their  feelings  alone. 


Church  and  Community  2^ 

"All  Day  Sings."  In  some  parts  of  Alabama, 
conspicuously  in  the  sandy  stretches  of  the  lower 
Appalachian  Mountains,  the  people  have  a  custom 
known  as  "  all  day  sings."  Certain  singing  masters 
make  a  business  of  going  through  the  country  and 
collecting  the  folk  on  Sundays  for  singing.  These 
men  have  a  rough  and  effective  power  in  song. 
They  use  generally  no  instrument  and  therefore  the 
rhythm-  and  the  swing  of  the  music  are  its  most 
notable  elements.  For  hours  the  people  sit  under  the 
leadership  of  the  singing  master  and  sing  simple, 
popular,  religious  songs.  Little  by  little  the  master 
selects  those  whom  he  calls  his  school.  They  are 
the  best  singers  and  he  keeps  them  in  permanent 
connection  with  himself,  coming  back  again  to  that 
community  for  later  performances. 

Suggestion  to  Churches.  The  churches  through 
all  this  country  have  learned  that  people  will  not 
go  to  church  within  a  radius  of  several  miles  of  an 
"  all  day  sing."  Sunday-schools  have  to  be  closed 
and  church  services  are  but  little  attended.  Yet 
families  will  drive  ten  miles  to  the  "  all  day  sing  " 
and  spend  the  whole  Sunday,  eating  their  meals  in 
the  intervals  between  sessions  and  driving  home  at 
night,  every  way  content.  These  gatherings  are 
the  expression  of  the  overflowing  emotionalism  of 
the  people  of  that  country.  It  would  seem  that  the 
churches  there  could  use  the  method  which  has 
grown  out  of  the  life  of  the  people  and  make  effec- 
tive for  their  own  use  what  is  a  matter  of  private 
profit  to  the  singing  masters. 


28  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 

Extreme  Church  Individualism.  The  church  in 
settler  days,  when  every  one  is  highly  individual- 
ized, is  scarcely  to  be  called  an  institution.  Its 
building  is  a  mere  roof  over  a  pulpit.  Its  work  con- 
sists of  preaching  and  no  more.  It  has  no  societies 
or  organizations.  The  settler  and  the  pioneer  would 
believe  it  wicked  to  organize  the  societies  which  an 
ordinary  village  church  of  our  day  thinks  necessary. 
Among  the  Southern  mountains,  where  the  pioneer 
type,  strongly  individualized,  remains,  where  every 
man  is  an  independent  person  and  every  woman  is  a 
strong  character,  the  churches  have  but  one  method 
of  religion;  namely,  the  periodic  revival.  They 
think  the  methods  of  the  people  in  the  valley  to  be 
wicked,  unreligious,  and  expressive  of  unregenerate 
minds.  To  them  Ladies'  Aid  societies  are  un- 
spiritual,  Sunday-schools  are  sinful,  and  boys' 
clubs  are  extremely  worldly. 

Ministry  to  Pioneers.  In  every  church  of  mod- 
ern times  there  remain  some  pioneers.  The  settler 
has  come  down  through  later  generations.  The  in- 
dividualist is  a  factor  and  he  must  be  dealt  with  in 
his  own  terms.  It  is  not  fair  for  him  to  tyrannize 
over  others  any  more  than  it  is  right  for  others  to 
exact  of  him  what  he  cannot  furnish.  Teach  him 
the  gospel  of  personal  salvation,  for  religion  means 
personal  things  to  him,  and  these  alone.  Arouse 
him  with  emotion.  Attach  him  to  persons.  Teach 
him  to  command  and  to  obey  those  whom  he  loves, 
but  do  not  expect  in  his  own  life  to  change  him 
into  another  type,  for  that  is  impossible.    Ministers 


Church  and  Community  29 

who  are  serving  in  communities  of  settlers,  of 
pioneers  and  mountaineers,  have  a  great  duty  of 
evangelism.  If  they  cannot  preach  a  gospel  that 
moves  the  heart,  they  had  better  go  elsewhere.  If 
they  cannot  live  a  life  that  grips  the  heart  and  holds 
the  affections,  they  can  accomplish  nothing  among  a 
people  dominated  by  emotion. 

Man  by  Man  Work.  The  community  life  of  the 
individualist  type  is  a  mere  aggregate.  However 
closely  the  people  in  it  are  related  to  one  another, 
they  are  a  mere  heap  of  separate  units.  They  are 
not  an  organism  growing  together  and  knit  into  one 
by  organized  vital  relations.  In  the  West  in  new 
settlements  every  man  is  equal  to  every  other,  and 
pure  democracy  prevails.  In  the  Southern  moun- 
tains each  man  stands  on  his  own  acres  and  faces 
the  world  without  fear.  He  extends  the  hospitality 
of  his  house  with  the  grace  of  a  great  lord.  He 
avenges  his  own  injuries  with  his  own  hand.  His 
mode  of  life  has  made  him  solitary  and  independent. 
He  is  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  quarrel  with  his 
nearest  kinsman  and  to  carry  the  feud  through  the 
years  of  his  life.  These  are  the  signs  of  a  religion 
of  personal  salvation.  Where  these  signs  appear, 
personal  work,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  the  min- 
istry of  man  to  man,  are  the  only  forms  in  which 
the  Church  can  serve  the  community.  Such  a  thing 
as  social  service,  the  ministry  of  a  consecrated  man 
to  a  society,  is  almost  impossible.  The  people  must 
here  be  dealt  with  man  by  man  and  that  which  wins 
the  one  has  no  influence  upon  the  other.    The  con- 


30  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

quest  of  one  heart  does  not  lead  to  the  conquest  of 
the  neighbor's  heart. 

Period  of  the  Household  Type.  The  second  type 
which  has  appeared  in  America  is  the  household 
farmer.  The  Church  represents  the  life  of  the  peo- 
ple and  is  as  faithful  to  the  household  type  as  to  the 
pioneer.  That  is  its  duty  under  God.  This  type 
of  church  and  community  is  more  general  through- 
out the  country,  for  the  household  tillage  of  the 
land  has  been  the  most  general  type  of  agriculture 
in  America.  In  Illinois  this  type  of  farming  became 
general  about  1835  and  its  period  ended  about  1890. 
In  the  Eastern  States,  Massachusetts  and  New 
York,  the  days  of  the  settler  whose  farming  was  in- 
dividualist ended  about  1800,  and  the  household 
farmer  possessed  the  land  until  about  1890.  The  be- 
ginning of  the  household  farming  period  was  in  the 
perfection  of  the  family  group.  The  end  of  it  is 
indicated  by  the  appearance  of  abandoned  farms, 
renters  or  tenants  in  the  country,  and  landlords 
living  in  the  towns. 

Its  Practise  and  Ideals.  The  household  farmer 
owned  his  land,  and  tilled  it  for  the  first  values  of 
the  soil.  He  had  neighbors  and  knew  how  to  treat 
them  kindly,  to  marry  his  children  to  their  children, 
to  exchange  with  them  many  social  and  helpful 
services,  but  he  did  not  cooperate  with  them  in  eco- 
nomic welfare.  The  household  farmer  competed 
with  his  neighbors  in  getting  his  income,  while  the 
modern  farmer  cooperates  with  his  neighbors  in  the 
securing  of  a  livelihood.    Above  all,  the  household 


Church  and  Community  31 

farmer  perfected  the  family  group.  His  house- 
hold became  the  type  of  American  life.  The  ideals 
of  all  American  morality,  of  right  feeling  and  of 
religion,  were  the  outgrowth  of  household  farming. 

Its  Church  Life.  The  Church  of  the  household 
farmer  expressed,  as  did  the  community,  his  mode 
of  life.  Unlike  the  Church  of  individualists,  it  pos- 
sessed a  place  for  the  children  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  even  for  the  infants  in  the  primary  depart- 
ment. It  perfected  societies  for  women  long  before 
a  woman's  club  movement  gave  them  a  new  enjoy- 
ment. It  organized  young  people's  societies,  which 
in  the  '80s  and  '90s  blossomed  forth  in  the  Young 
People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  and  kindred 
national  movements.  The  country  Church  of  the 
household  type  had  even  some  organizations  for 
boys,  though  these  were  uncommon.  This  type  of 
Church  is  distinctly  unlike  that  which  preceded  it. 
in  the  wealth  of  its  recognition  of  family  life. 
Central  to  its  whole  organization  was  the  family 
pew. 

Facing  Changed  Conditions.  This  is  the  country 
Church  of  which  we  have  thought  in  the  past.  It  is 
this  country  Church  which  has  suffered  in  recent 
years,  and  whose  weakness  has  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  religious  thinkers.  Just  as  the  pioneer 
Church,  with  its  individualist  preaching  and  its 
one  method  of  periodic  revival,  was  succeeded  by 
the  household  Church,  whose  methods  are  many! 
and  whose  various  organizations  would  have  seemed ' 
to  the  pioneer  sinful,  so  the  country  Church  of  the 


32  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

household  farming  era  is  being  transformed  into  a 
new  type,  because  the  community  of  household 
farmer  has  since  1890  undergone  transformation. 
The  first  business  of  the  devout  Christian  in  the 
country  Church  is  to  recognize  this  inevitable  change 
and  to  foresee  the  type  into  which  the  Church  is  to 
be  transformed. 

Good  Features  Conserved.  Meantime,  the  coun- 
try Church  of  the  household  farmer  is  the  type  of 
Church  still  remaining  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. It  is  important  for  us  to  recognize  the  services 
and  the  work  of  this  Church,  and  to  indicate  the 
ways  by  which  it  can  serve  the  country  community. 
It  is  important  also  to  remember  that  in  the  future 
the  new  type  of  Church  will  possess  all  the  good 
traits  of  those  which  have  gone  before.  Just  as  the 
household  farming  Church  retains  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel  of  personal  salvation  and  the  periodic  re- 
vival of  religion — a  religion  of  the  heart — so  the 
Church  of  the  newer  type  that  is  to  come  will  pre- 
serve these  individualist  and  primitive  customs,  be- 
cause they  are  good,  along  with  every  good  custom 
of  the  household  farmers'  Church. 

Different  Conditions  in  Canada.  Conditions  in 
Canada  are  strikingly  different  from  those  in  the 
United  States.  Among  country  churches  the  pre- 
dominant type  of  Church  is  that  of  the  household 
farmer.  Three  reasons  explain  this.  Much  of  the 
country  has  been  settled  later  than  parts  of  the 
United  States  on  the  same  parallels  of  longitude. 
Secondly,  the  Canadians  are  more  tenacious,  and 


Church  and  Community  33 

slower  to  change.  The  third  reason  is  the  settle- 
ment, in  the  eastern  provinces,  of  many  Scotch 
people,  and  kindred  types,  who,  as  will  be  shown 
elsewhere,  have  demonstrated  their  ability  to  resist 
the  changes  I  am  describing.  All  this  is  for  the 
good  of  Canadian  Christianity.  The  later  and  more 
deliberate  settlement  will  make  possible  the  assimila- 
tion of  later  experience  and  of  a  more  mature 
Christian  sociology.  The  general  conservatism,  if 
it  be  wise,  can  retain  the  best  of  the  old,  while  mak- 
ing ready  for  the  new.  And  the  genius  of  certain 
national  stocks  will  strengthen  the  national  fiber 
against  destructive  change. 

General  Canadian  Movement.  It  is  therefore  the 
general  task  of  Canadian  Christians,  so  far  as  they 
differ  from  their  brethren  in  the  States,  to  build  the 
Church  upon  the  family  group.  For  there  will  not 
be  a  long  pioneer  period  in  any  part  of  Canada. 
The  fine  family  life  of  those  communities  which 
have  begun  to  disintegrate  in  the  States  will  last 
for  decades  longer  in  many  parts  of  Canada.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that,  without  impairment  of  this 
group-life  in  the  churches,  the  newer  social  order 
may  be  taught  to  the  people.  For  the  latter  stages 
of  country  life  will  come.  The  destination  of  all 
American  farming  is  in  the  direction  of  what  I 
have  called  "  husbandry."  Conservatism  can  only 
postpone  it;  and  happy  that  conservatism  which 
sees  in  the  mistakes  of  the  more  swiftly  moving 
"  States  "  the  sign-posts  of  its  own  future  course. 

Source  of  Religious  Competition.    The  Church  is 


34  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

made  up  of  households,  as  the  community  is  made 
up  of  farmhouses.  It  is  a  dignified  assembly  of 
groups.  Its  spirit  is  one  of  neighborliness,  but  not 
of  cooperative  unity.  The  farmers  have  kindly  and 
genial  relations  with  one  another:  their  social 
pleasures  are  from  common  sources.  They  inter- 
marry, they  borrow  and  they  lend,  but  they  are  not 
unified  in  their  farming.  In  social  life  they  are  one : 
in  business  life  they  are  many.  In  business  affairs 
through  the  working  day  they  compete:  and  the 
result  is  that  the  Church  of  households  teaches  re- 
ligious competition  and  division ;  because  religious 
institutions  are  determined  in  their  form  by  eco- 
nomic experience.  In  his  economic  experience  the 
household  farmer  is  his  neighbor's  opponent  and 
competitor. 

Lacking  in  Community  Feeling.  This  explains 
why  there  are  so  many  churches  in  the  country. 
The  land-farmer  lived  and  worked  for  his  own 
household.  It  seemed  to  him  no  ill  that  his  neighbor 
should  not  be  in  the  same  church.  He  had  no  con- 
ception of  the  community  as  the  basis  of  common 
welfare.  His  basis  of  living  is  his  farm.  It  mat- 
ters not  to  him  if  his  neighbor's  farming  fails.  He 
has  rather  a  pleasant  feeling  in  his  own  success  and 
in  the  contrast  to  his  neighbor's  loss.  If  his  orchard 
has  a  good  crop  he  has  no  regret  that  his  neighbor's 
orchard  has  none,  knowing  that  the  price  of  apples 
may  be  higher.  His  whole  life  is  lived  in  com- 
petition with  those  outside  of  his  own  household 
group.     The  result  is  that  his  religious  life  is  an 


Church  and  Community  35 

experience  of  competition,  except  with  the  group  of 
households  who  are  within  his  own  congregation. 

Traditional  Competitive  View.  The  household 
farmer  believes  that  country  churches  are  main- 
tained by  competition,  and  this  view  prevails  in 
many  high  places.  Leaders  among  all  Protestant 
churches  hold  with  respect  the  view  that  "  If  you 
take  the  Methodist  Church  out  of  the  neighborhood, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  will  die."  This  view  is 
traditional.  It  comes  out  of  the  household  farmers' 
way  of  life.  It  may  have  had  truth  during  the  era 
of  household  farming,  but  it  is  based  on  no  co- 
operative principle.  Communities  cannot  be  built 
out  of  competition:  they  must  be  dominated  by 
union. 

Impressive  and  United  Worship.  The  churches 
of  the  household  era  of  farming  have  been  inspiring 
and  noble  institutions.  The  Church  as  an  institu- 
tion grew  up  in  the  country  in  this  time,  for  the 
earlier  church  of  the  pioneer  could  scarcely  be 
called  an  institution.  The  gathering  of  farmers  in 
their  substantial  vehicles  from  far  and  near  on  the 
Sabbath  morning  was  a  spectacle  which  deeply  im- 
pressed the  casual  visitor,  or  the  hired  man  as 
he  came  into  the  community.  I  confess  that  no 
scene  stirs  my  heart  more  deeply  than  the  sight  of 
many  horses  and  carriages  standing  about  the  coun- 
try church,  the  horse-sheds  full,  every  tree  a  hitch- 
ing-post,  and  rows  of  riding-horses  and  carriage 
animals  tethered  to  the  fences :  these  all  give  an  im- 
pression of  the  assembled  community.     The  quiet 


36  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 

exterior  of  the  meeting  is  in  vivid  contrast  to  its 
intense  and  thronged  interior.  The  dignified  voice 
of  the  preacher  or  the  solemn  joining  in  the  hymn, 
complete  the  impression  of  the  whole  community 
assembled  in  church.  Each  man  sits  with  his  family 
and  the  mother  with  her  children.  The  young  men 
and  women,  while  seated  apart,  are  in  the  liveliest, 
emotional  consciousness  of  one  another;  and  the 
chorr,  well  aware  of  their  importance  in  the  service, 
are  in  their  place.  The  preacher,  who  sees  less  of 
his  people  than  of  the  unseen  realities  of  which  he  is 
to  testify,  feels  that  upon  him  rests  the  meaning  of 
the  whole  occasion.  But  in  that  audience  every  man 
has  his  own  thoughts  and  every  household  present  is 
as  significant  in  its  attendance  upon  worship  as  the 
household  of  the  preacher.  Such  a  country  church 
is  an  assemblage  of  homes.  It  is  a  great  symbol  of 
social  unity. 

Present  Speculative  Influence.  The  third  type  of 
communities  in  the  country  is  the  speculative. 
American  country  life  is  now  undergoing  the  cor- 
rosive influence  of  exploitation.  The  values  of 
land  are  swiftly  changing  over  the  whole  United 
States.  The  day  of  household  farming  is  closing. 
Few  territories  exhibit  the  household  farmer  as  the 
dominant  type  throughout  a  whole  population.  In 
most  of  the  States,  even  in  the  South,  speculation 
in  land  has  brought  into  the  community  the  three 
figures,  represented  in  many  individuals,  whose  in- 
fluence is  greater  upon  the  Church  and  community 
than  that  of  any  minister  of  religion.    These  three 


Church  and  Community  37 

are  the  renter  or  tenant  farmer,  the  retired  farmer, 
and  the  landlord.  Their  participation  in  country 
life  has  wholly  changed  household  farming  into  a 
new  type.  This  process  is  not  yet  completed,  but 
the  present  distress  and  weakness  of  country 
churches  is  a  sign  of  its  transforming  influence  in 
country  life. 

Money  Valuing  of  Land.  Exploitation  is  the 
turning  of  other  values  into  money.  It  is  not  mere 
speculation,  though  in  many  communities  the  ex- 
ploitation of  farm  land  has  brought  into  existence 
land  speculators.  In  a  Western  farming  community, 
I  am  told,  the  process  of  speculation  has  gone  so 
far  that  the  town  supports  a  real  estate  agent  for 
every  thousand  acres  of  land  which  is  open  to  the 
buying  and  selling.  This,  however,  is  extreme. 
The  usual  process  is  one  in  which  the  farmer,  who 
once  thought  of  his  property  as  a  home,  now  thinks 
of  it  in  terms  of  dollars  and  cents.  The  land- 
farmer,  or  household  farmer,  had  no  price  upon  his 
land.  He  did  not  know  what  it  was  worth.  He 
did  not  usually  know  how  much  his  income  was. 
But  gradually,  in  the  years  of  migration,  the  farm- 
ers in  the  more  progressive  and  central  States, 
such  as  Illinois  and  Ohio,  began  to  value  their  land 
and  their  homes  in  terms  of  money. 

Period  of  Exploitation.  This  must  have  been  in 
the  older  and  eastern  States  a  bitter  process,  for 
on  the  land-farmer's  acres  were  buried  the  ashes 
of  his  ancestors  for  two  or  three  generations.  The 
household  farmer  had  consecrated  his  land  by  set- 


38  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ting  God's  acre  in  the  corner  of  the  field.  The  day 
came  after  the  Civil  War,  with  the  realization  that 
the  first  values  of  the  land  were  exhausted,  when 
the  household  farmer  set  off  for  the  West.  He  sold 
or  abandoned  his  land,  on  which  his  ancestors  had 
lived,  and  began  that  emigration  to  the  West  which 
has  characterized  the  last  forty  years.  In  these 
forty  years  farm  lands  have  been  exploited,  bought 
and  sold  by  farmers  themselves.  The  prices  of 
land  at  first  slowly,  but  of  late  very  swiftly,  have 
increased.  In  the  past  ten  years  in  the  Middle  West 
this  increase  has  been  in  some  sections  about  one 
hundred  per  cent.^ 

Giving  as  a  Timely  Message.  The  churches  of 
speculative  farmers  are  churches  whose  most  marked 
characteristic  is  giving.  We  are  likely  to  think  of 
speculation  as  a  purely  destructive  process.  It  is 
the  acid  bath  in  which  the  farmer's  social  economy 
is  dipped,  which  burns  off  all  that  is  not  permanent 
in  the  previous  economy,  and  prepares  for  the  put- 
ting on  of  the  new  order  in  which  the  farmer  shall 
till  the  land  by  science  rather  than  by  tradition.  But 
speculation  is  a  process  of  valuing  things  in  cash. 
The  Church,  as  all  other  things,  comes  to  be  esti- 
mated in  terms  of  money.  The  doctrine  of  the 
exploiter  is  the  doctrine  of  giving.  This  is  the  trans- 
formation which  country  churches  need  to  make  at 
the  present  time.  Other  things  in  the  country  com- 
munity are  valued  in  money.    The  farmer  has  been 

'  Professor  John  Lee  Coulter  in  the  Statistical  Journal, 
March,  191 1. 


RENTER  S  BARN  AND  CABIN 


Church  and  Community  39 

eager  for  cash  with  which  to  secure  better  machin- 
ery, suitable  fertihzers  for  his  land,  education  for 
his  children,  and  other  aids  to  progress.  He  is 
eager  to  use  money  in  preparing  himself  for  the 
new  era  into  which  he  is  going,  and  he  is  per- 
fectly right.  It  is  important  that  religion  be  in- 
terpreted to  him  in  terms. of  giving  money.  The 
consecration  of  wealth  is  the  doctrine  which  the 
minister  must  preach  to  farmers  in  the  day  of  buy- 
ing and  selling. 

Program  of  Improvements.  The  country  com- 
munity is  profoundly  affected  in  like  manner  by 
speculation.  The  problems  of  the  community  come 
to  be  those  of  new  taxation  for  better  schools,  bond- 
ing the  county  for  the  construction  of  stone  roads, 
and  securing  contributions  for  libraries,  for  the 
organizing  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations, 
and  other  projects  which  call  for  cash.  The  old- 
fashioned  farmer  resists  these  demands.  He  is  not 
accustomed  to  spending  large  monies  upon  public 
projects.  He  is  suspicious  of  bonds  and  of  all  in- 
vestments in  anything  which  he  cannot  see.  The 
pioneer  or  settler  farmers  sturdily  resist  these  inter- 
pretations of  the  community  in  terms  of  cash.  But 
the  leaders  of  the  community  see  that  the  process 
which  puts  a  price  upon  an  acre,  which  compels  the 
old-fashioned  farmer  to  sell  the  dust  of  his  ances- 
tors, has  been  inspired  by  God  and  is  necessary  in 
the  life  of  a  growing  community. 

Exploitation  a  Brief  Transition  Era.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  period  of  exploitation  is  but  tempo- 


40  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

rary.  Professor  Ross  ^  describes  the  period  of 
exploitation  as  a  mere  dawning  of  the  day  of 
scientific  farming.  It  would  bring  great  hope  and 
encouragement  to  country  ministers  who  suffer  from 
the  effects  of  speculation  in  farm  land  to  know  that 
this  day  is  but  short.  Most  important  of  all  is  it 
that  they  should  know  what  to  do  in  this  time  of 
transition.  The  task  of  the  minister  and  of  other 
community  leaders  is  expressed  in  one  word:  the 
consecration  of  private  wealth  to  the  use  of  the 
community. 

Aims  for  the  Country  Worker.  In  another  place 
the  methods  of  raising  money  for  religious  uses  will 
be  dealt  with.  Here  we  are  only  interested  in  ur- 
ging the  worker  in  the  country  to  see  that  his  rela- 
tion to  these  public  enterprises  is  twofold:  first,  to 
arouse  a  spirit  of  public  willingness  to  give  and  to 
pay;  second,  to  watch  with  critical  eye  these  in- 
vestments by  taxes  and  all  bond  issues,  in  order  to 
insure  honesty  and  to  distribute  the  burden  with 
justice  and  fairness  upon  the  present  and  upon 
future  generations. 

Teach  Doctrine  of  Giving.  A  new  standard  of 
expenditure  must  be  attained  in  the  country.  It  is 
the  business  of  the  religious  leader  in  the  country, 
more  than  of  any  other  person,  to  teach  the  farmers 
who  are  prospering  in  cash  values  the  doctrine  of 
giving.  The  nature  of  the  community  and  the  in- 
tensified value  of  the  community's  institutions  must 

* "  Agrarian  Changes  in  the  Middle  West,"  American 
Journal  of  Economics,  December,  1910. 


Church  and  Community  4f 

be  made  clear  to  country  people,  and  a  spirit  too  of 
sharing  the  prosperity  which  God  has  given  must 
be  imparted  to  them.  This  spirit  above  all  is 
religious. 

Beginnings  of  Organization  Era.  The  fourth 
type  of  Church  and  community  in  the  country  is 
based  upon  organized  or  scientific  farming,  which  is 
the  destination  of  American  agriculture.  Churches 
of  this  type  are  few.  Communities  of  organized 
farming  are,  except  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  still  fewer. 
Individual  farmers  who  are  tilling  their  land  by 
science  are  many,  but  their  total  number  in  com- 
parison to  the  population  of  the  country  as  a  whole 
is  very  small.  They  usually  constitute  but  a  frac- 
tion of  any  community  except  in  particular  terri- 
tories. 

Marked  Characteristics.  Organized  farming  pre- 
sents certain  marked  characteristics.  These  marks 
are  seen  in  the  churches  of  husbandmen  and  in  the 
communities  in  which  they  live.  For  the  mode  by 
which  the  people  of  the  country  get  their  living  is 
the  organizing  factor  in  religious  and  in  community 
life. 

Dependence  upon  Scientist.  The  first  of  these 
characteristics  is  the  dependence  of  the  farmer 
upon  the  scientist.  The  tillage  of  the  soil  by  the 
household  group  was  traditional.  Lessons  were 
taught  by  the  father  to  the  son;  by  the  old  man  to 
the  young.  Its  weakness  was  in  its  inability  to 
meet  new  situations  and  its  lack  of  resources  after 
the  first  values  of  the  soil  were  exhausted.     The 


L^ 


42  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

scientific  farmer  goes  to  the  university  for  his 
methods.  He  reads  the  bulletins  of  the  State  and 
national  departments.  He  attends  the  farmers'  in- 
stitute. He  does  his  own  thinking  in  greater  meas- 
ure than  any  countryman  who  preceded  him,  because 
he  has  more  to  think  about.  He  has,  if  necessary, 
the  analysis  of  his  soil,  and  he  frankly  recognizes 
the  dependence  of  his  agriculture  upon  the  scien- 
tific man.  This  dependence  is  as  close  as  the  rela- 
tion of  the  operating  surgeon  to  the  investigator 
and  diagnostician.  It  follows  that  the  scientific 
farmer  cannot  teach  his  own  son  in  the  present  gen- 
eration. The  son  who  comes  home  from  college 
may  even  teach  his  father,  if  the  father  be  intelli- 
gent enough  to  appreciate  the  modern  learning  re- 
lating to  the  farm. 

Principle  of  Cooperation.  In  the  second  place, 
scientific  farming  tends  to  be  cooperative.  The 
competition  of  household  groups  with  one  another 
disappears  in  the  face  of  the  common  struggle  to 
gain  a  market.  Long  ago  Hesiod,  the  Greek  poet, 
discovered  that  agriculture  is  cooperative  by  its 
very  nature.  It  has  taken  American  farmers  a  long 
time  to  discover  this  fact,  by  comparing  the  experi- 
ence of  different  sections.  Those  farmers  whose 
churches  and  communities  have  survived  the  de- 
structive period  of  speculation  in  land  are  all 
strengthened  by  cooperation  in  some  thorough 
form.  The  new  cooperative  tillage  of  the  Maryland 
Eastern  shore,  of  Kentucky,  and  of  Oregon,  which 
is  described  in  the  chapter  on  "  Cooperation  and 


Church  and  Community  43 

Federation,"  is  an  application  of  this  principle  an- 
nounced by  Hesiod  eight  centuries  before  Christ 
that  farming  is  cooperation.  The  cooperative  or- 
ganizations of  farmers  are  the  greatest  moral  force 
in  controlling  the  individual  and  imposing  upon  him 
standards  of  justice,  fairness,  self-sacrifide,  and 
obedience. 

Use  of  Marginal  Values.  The  third  character- 
istic of  scientific  farming  is  the  use  of  marginal 
values.  The  land-farmer  in  the  nineteenth  century 
lived  by  the  values  which  lay  on  the  top  of  the 
ground,  abundant  fertility  of  soil,  rich  resources  in 
timber,  unexploited  mines  of  coal,  iron,  mica,  or 
copper.  The  farmer  who  must  organize  to  get  a 
living  makes  his  profit  from  the  by-products.  He 
must  till  the  soil  so  that  its  fertility  is  retained  and 
increased.  He  cannot  afford  to  waste,  for  he  is 
dealing  with  a  depleted  and  weakened  soil.  The 
religious  and  moral  character  of  the  new  era  in 
agriculture  is  seen  in  this  struggle  of  the  farmer  to 
live,  not  by  first  values,  but  by  final  values  of  the 
soil,  of  the  wood-lot,  and  of  his  own  energies. 

Example  of  Such  Values.  Marginal  values  are 
those  by  which  the  milk  farmer  lives,  who  main- 
tains his  farm  and  his  establishment  by  milking 
forty  to  seventy  cows.  But  these  bring  him  no 
profit.  In  the  middle  of  the  day,  "  between  chores," 
he  tills  a  piece  of  land  on  which  perhaps  he  raises 
a  crop;  which  he  sells  for  cash.  This  crop  is  clean 
gain.  It  is  his  marginal  labor.  It  is  done  with  the 
unemployed  hours  of  his  man  and  himself.     The 


44  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

dairy  keeps  up  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  pays  the 
bills  of  the  farm,  but  the  extra  crop  of  the  orchard 
brings  in  a  clean,  undiminished  profit. 

Church  Becomes  a  Community  Center.  The 
Church  of  the  organized  farmer  is  an  organized 
Church,  Dr.  Edward  Judson,  in  New  York,  defines 
the  institutional  Church  as  "  organized  kindness." 
The  country  Church  which  ministers  to  scientific 
farmers  might  be  called  organized  social  life;  for 
social  life  generates  religion  and  exhibits  Christian 
experiences.  The  Church  of  the  scientific  farmer, 
therefore,  should  be  a  local  agency  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  It  should  embody  in  itself  the  whole  com- 
munity.    It  should  be  a  community  center. 

Community  Like  One  Household.  For  it  is  ob- 
vious that  with  the  coming  of  organized  farming 
the  community  has  taken  the  place  of  the  house- 
hold. It  is  indeed  a  large  household.  No  longer 
do  households  compete  with  one  another,  for  the 
farmers  who  are  organized  compete  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  through  a  cooperative  association  in 
which  they  are  all  members.  Thus  the  country 
people  who  till  the  soil  by  science  become  closely 
compacted  and  intimately  related  to  one  another. 
In  the  old  time  the  household  farmer  taught  his 
son  how  to  farm.  His  wife  taught  her  daughter 
how  to  cook  and  to  sew.  These  processes  are  now 
taught  in  the  community  by  the  teacher  of  agri- 
culture and  the  teacher  of  domestic  science.  The 
farmer  sits  side  by  side  with  his  son  on  the  bench 
in  the  grange  hall  or  in  the  church  parlors  to  hear 


Church  and  Community  45 

a  lecture  and  demonstration  by  a  scientific  farmer. 
The  classroom  becomes  an  essential  part  of  the 
process  of  agriculture  and  it  is  a  community  class- 
room. 

Community  Service  of  the  Sunday-school.  In 
the  same  manner  religion  is  taught  in  the  organ- 
ized farming  community  in  the  Sunday-school.  In 
the  old  days  it  was  taught  in  the  household.  Among 
the  best  families,  and  most  devout,  religion  will 
continue  to  be  taught  at  the  fireside,  and  worship 
will  culminate  in  the  family  altar,  but  the  family 
altar  and  fireside  are  inadequate  to  the  religious 
problem  of  a  community  in  which  men's  lives  are 
compacted  into  a  social  whole.  For,  in  intense 
social  life,  it  is  as  important  to  educate  your  neigh- 
bor's children  as  it  is  to  educate  your  own.  The 
devout  farmer  soon  learns  that  the  children  of  his 
hired  man  are  a  bigger  influence  upon  his  own  chil- 
dren than  he  is  himself.  In  order  to  preserve  the 
religious  tradition  in  his  own  house,  he  must  bring 
up  the  children  of  his  neighbor  to  his  own  stand- 
ards; hence  the  Sunday-school  becomes  the  com- 
munity institution  which  bears  up  the  whole  task 
of  religious  education.  The  farmer  takes  his  place 
as  teacher  of  a  Bible  class.  His  influence  on  his 
own  sons  is  exerted  when  they  come  to  him  in  their 
turn  with  the  sons  of  other  men  to  be  taught  what 
he  is  best  qualified  to  teach.  His  wife  becomes  the 
teacher  of  the  primary  department  and  all  the  chil- 
dren of  the  community  come  to  her,  including  her 
own.    Through  this  department  she  teaches  in  the^ 


46  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

community  much  better  than  she  could  teach  in  her 
own  home. 

Religious  Education  Centralized.  Religion  it- 
self, as  understood  to-day,  cannot  be  taught  in  the 
household.  Modern  pedagogy  and  the  methods  of 
teaching  which  are  used  in  the  schools  and  colleges 
can  be  adopted  by  Sunday-schools,  but  cannot  be 
adopted  by  firesides.  Most  parents  are  incapable 
of  teaching  in  the  terms  of  modern  religious  edu- 
cation. For  this  reason  the  Sunday-school  becomes 
the  community  center  in  religious  education.  All 
the  children  of  the  countryside — not  merely  the 
children  of  church-members — can  be  brought  to- 
gether and  thus  assemble  for  learning  at  the  feet 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  community  has  become  the 
home  of  the  individual,  and  in  that  home  every 
child  and  every  man  has  the  influence  upon  every 
other  which  the  members  of  a  household  once  had 
in  the  earlier  days  upon  other  members. 


SCHOOLS  FOR  COUNTRY  LIFE 


/  But  if  this  attraction — the  attraction  of  common  work  and  socia) 
intercourse  with  a  circle  of  friends — is  to  prevail  in  the  long  run 
over  the  lure  which  the  city  offers  to  eye  and  ear  and  pocket,  there 
must  be  a  change  in  rural  education.  At  present  country  children 
are  educated  as  if  for  the  purpose  of  driving  them  into  the  towns. 
To  the  pleasure  which  the  cultured  city  man  feels  in  the  country — 
because  he  has  been  taught  to  feel  it — the  country  child  is  insensible. 
The  country  offers  continual  interest  to  the  mind  which  has  been 
trained  to  be  thoughtful  and  observant;  the  town  offers  continual 
distraction  to  the  vacant  eye  and  brain.  Yet,  the  education  given 
to  country  children  has  been  invented  for  them  in  the  town,  and 
it  not  only  bears  no  relation  to  the  life  they  are  to  lead,  but  actu- 
ally attracts  them  toward  a  town  career. — Horace  Plunkett 

The  subject  of  paramount  importance  in  our  correspondence  and 
in  the  hearings  is  education.  In  every  part  of  the  United  States 
there  seems  to  be  one  mind,  on  the  part  of  those  capable  of  judging, 
on  the  necessity  of  redirecting  the  rural  schools.  There  is  no  such 
unanimity  on  any  other  subject.  It  is  remarkable  with  what  simi- 
larity of  phrase  the  subject  has  been  discussed  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  before  the  commission.  Everywhere  there  is  a  demand  that 
education  have  relation  to  living,  that  the  schools  should  express  the 
daily  life,  and  that  in  the  rural  districts  they  should  educate  by  means 
of  agriculture  and  country-life  subjects.  It  is  recognized  that  all 
difficulties  resolve  themselves  in  the  end  into  a  question  of  education. — 
Report  of  the  Country   Life  Commission 

The  simple  organization  of  the  Sabbath-school  makes  it  peculiarly 
fitted  for  the  special  service  it  has  rendered  in  the  rural  parts  of 
our  land.  As  a  force  for  the  evangelization  of  urban  and  rural  life 
it  is  greater  than  it  has  been  at  any  previous  time.  There  are  two 
phases  of  Sabbath-school  work:  the  first  is  an  evangelizing  agency  in 
places  where  no  local  church  exists;  the  second  is  as  a  part  of  the 
regular  work  of  an  established  local  church.  In  the  first,  it  is  a 
pioneer;  in  the  second,  it  is  "the  Bible-studying-and-teaching  service 
of   the    Church." 

The  Sabbath-school  has  been  described  as  "  the  most  flexible, 
adaptable,  and  far-reaching  institution  ever  designed  for  the  con- 
version of  the  world."  The  Sabbath-school  in  its  missionary  phase 
has  been  one  of  the  chief  forces  for  the  evangelization  of  new- 
country  communities,  and  the  pioneer  of  the  Church  on  the  frontier. 
Missionaries,  churches,  and  redeemed  communities  throughout  the  land 
testify  to  the  efficiency  of  this  popular  and  rational  method  of 
evangelization. — /,    O.    Ashenhurst 


48 


Ill 

SCHOOLS  FOR  COUNTRY  LIFE 

Religious  Inspiration  Needed.  Nothing  short  of 
religious  devotion  will  organize  an  adequate  educa- 
tional system  for  the  whole  people.  The  common 
school  system,  based  on  the  purpose  to  educate  all 
the  children  of  a  commonwealth,  was  launched  in 
Scotland  and  in  New  England  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  under  intense  and  masterful 
religious  devotion.  We  are  confronted  with  a  task 
as  great  in  the  need  of  adequate  education  in  coun- 
try communities  in  America.  The  common  schools, 
the .  Sunday-schools,  and  the  extension  departments 
of  agricultural  colleges  are  in  need  of  a  new  in- 
spiration. They  will  receive  it  only  from  sources 
which  are  essentially  religious. 

Reconstruction  in  Denmark.  The  recent  experi- 
ence of  Denmark  illustrates  this  thesis.^  In  forty 
years  Denmark  has  been  reconstructed  as  a  nation, 
lifted  out  of  the  depression  of  a  great  military  de- 
feat, out  of  debt,  and  out  of  social  disorganization. 
This  has  been  accomplished  by  the  schoolmasters  of 
Denmark.  Serious  observers  attribute  the  central, 
inspiring  influence  to  the  folk  high  schools,  estab- 

*  See  Appendix  A. 
49 


50  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

lished  as  a  religious  enterprise  by  Bishop  Grundtvig 
and  his  associates. 

Value  of  Rural  Schools.  The  one-room  rural 
schools  which  prevail  in  the  country  have  been  of 
enormous  influence  in  American  life.  Their  or- 
ganization as  a  system  was  one  of  the  greatest  edu- 
cational tasks  in  history.  For  they  were  planted 
by  an  advancing  tide  of  immigration  as  a  new  con- 
tinent was  being  peopled.  One  marvels  at  the 
statesmanship  which  maps  out  a  vast  region  on  the 
scale  of  the  short  legs  of  a  six-year-old  child,  for 
the  school  district  is  standardized  by  the  ability  of 
a  little  child  to  walk  morning  and  night  to  and 
from  school. 

Present  Diminished  Usefulness.  But  wonderful 
as  the  one-room  school  system  is,  with  the  passing 
of  the  household  farming  era  its  usefulness  rapidly 
diminishes.  It  was  established  at  the  close  of  the 
pioneer  period.  As  communities  were  formed  in 
the  beginning  of  settled  social  life,  this  school  was 
at  its  highest  value.  While  the  rural  household  was 
complete  unto  itself  and  while  the  economic  skill 
of  the  country  was  imparted  from  the  father  to 
the  son,  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  country  schools 
to  be  strong.  They  needed  only  to  be  universal, 
simple,  elastic,  and  systematic.  The  "  three  R's  " 
were  sufficient  as  an  education  for  those  whose  real 
training  for  life  was  in  the  home  and  imparted  by 
tradition  from  parent  to  child. 

Call  for  Reorganization.  But  with  the  coming 
of  scientific  farming  and  the  reorganization  of  coun- 


Schools  for  Country  Life  $1 

try  life,  the  one-room  rural  schools  need  to  be  reor- 
ganized. They  have  already  lost  the  enthusiastic 
support  which  they  once  had  from  the  farmer. 
Organized  and  scientific  farmers  do  not  find  them- 
selves served  as  well  by  the  one-room  school  as  their 
fathers  did  in  the  household  farming  era.  Instead 
of  insisting  upon  the  "  three  R's  "  alone,  the  or- 
ganized farmer  is  eagerly  seeking  for  industrial 
training.  The  country  school,  therefore,  has  no 
longer  the  same  settled  place  in  his  mind.  A 
rural  investigator  in  northern  Missouri  reports  that 
in  thirty  miles  of  travel  on  country  roads  he  saw 
not  one  house  or  barn  unpainted,  but  every  school- 
house  out  of  repair.  The  farmers  are  building  up 
everything  but  the  country  schools.  The  one-room 
rural  school  is  no  longer  to  them  a  serviceable  in- 
stitution. These  grown-up  farmers  are  assembling 
regularly  to  learn  in  middle  life  the  reasons  of  scien- 
tific agriculture,  but  the  schoolhouse  and  the  school- 
teacher are  not  a  part  of  this  new  system. 

Work  of  Recent  Writers.  It  should  be  borne 
clearly  in  mind  that  this  lack  in  the  country  school 
affects  the  religion  of  the  country  community,  and 
with  equal  clearness  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  change  in  the  value  of  the  country  school  comes 
with  the  introduction  of  speculation  into  agricul- 
tural life.  When  the  farming  of  a  region  goes 
through  a  rapid  increase  in  values  of  land,  when 
tenant  farmers  invade  a  neighborhood  in  large  pro- 
portion, when  the  farm  landlord  comes  to  be  a 
notable  figure  in  agriculture,  and  when  farmers  re- 


52  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 

tire  to  the  towns  to  live,  then  the  country  schools 
need  to  be  revised  in  the  interest  of  the  farmer, 
the  school-teacher,  and  the  country  Church.  The 
books  on  the  country  school  are  at  the  present  time 
among  the  best  books  for  reading  among  religious 
people.  No  writer  or  speaker  in  the  country  is 
more  stimulating  to  a  church  audience  than  Pro- 
fessor H.  W.  Foght  of  Kirksville,  Missouri,  whose 
book,  The  American  Rural  School,  illuminates  the 
problem  of  the  American  rural  Church.  The  writ- 
ings and  publications  of  Superintendent  O.  J.  Kern,* 
of  Winnebago  County,  Illinois,  are  of  great  value  to 
those  who  would  understand  country  life.  Miss 
Mabel  Carney  is  a  writer  and  speaker  on  country 
life,  whose  insight  and  comprehension  of  the  school 
question  have  qualified  her  to  speak  with  equal  force 
to  the  country  minister.  She  has  been  a  valuable 
helper  in  many  conferences  and  schools  for  country 
ministers.  These  leaders  in  the  reconstruction  of 
country  schools  illustrate  in  their  service  to  the 
country  Church  the  unity  of  the  rural  problem. 
Country  life  is  simple.  That  which  is  true  of  one 
institution  in  the  country  holds  for  the  others.  The 
process  which  changes  the  mind  of  the  countryman, 
in  his  thought  of  his  schools,  will  alter  and  elevate 
his  thought  of  the  Church ;  and  all  these  changes  of 
the  rural  mind  are  dependent  upon  changes  in  eco- 
nomic and  social  experience. 

Proposed  Improvements.     These  writers  on  the 

^Among  Rural  Schools,  and  Annual  Report  of  Winnebago 
County  Schools. 


Schools  for  Country  Life  53 

American  rural  school  believe  in  the  improvement 
of  the  one-room  country  school,  in  a  living  salary 
for  the  teachers,  in  adequate  and  professional  super- 
vision of  country  schools,  and  in  the  consolidation 
of  very  many  country  schools,  independent  of  town 
or  village.  The  important  principle  in  all  these 
proposed  changes  is  the  service  of  the  country 
school  to  the  working  farmer.  The  changes  needed 
are  those  which  will  make  the  school  serviceable 
in  the  task  which  the  farmer  has  to  perform; 
namely,  the  industrial  struggle  by  which  he  gets 
his  living,  and  the  social  reorganization  by  which 
he  shall  live  on  a  higher  modern  plane,  after  he 
has  got  a  better  income.  In  other  words,  the  rural 
schools  are  called  on  to  respond  to  the  challenge, 
"  better  farming,  better  business,  better  living." 

Place  Still  for  One-room  Schools.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  go  into  technical  details  here  as  to  im- 
provement of  schools  in  the  country.  The  reader 
had  better  look  to  those  who  are  school  authorities 
themselves  for  these  details,  but  I  believe  that  the 
one-room  country  school  will  in  many  places  per- 
manently survive.  There  are  isolated  valleys  and 
hilly  or  mountainous  plateaus  or  lonely  districts  in 
which  the  country  school  must  be  small  and  one 
teacher  will  be  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  few 
children  in  the  place.  There  is  much  to  be  said 
for  the  one-room  school,  provided  it  has  a  good 
equipment  and  a  devoted,  well-trained  teacher. 
Let  us  suppose,  therefore,  that  in  a  fertile  moun- 
tain valley  there  are  twenty  children  in  a  popula- 


54  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

tion  not  Hkely  to  be  increased.     What  improve- 
ments are  necessary  to  make  the  school  a  part  of  the 
vital  reorganization  of  the  country? 
^  Adequate   Teacher's   Salary.      First   of   all,   the 

teacher  should  have  an  adequate  salary,  and,  what- 
ever payment  is  necessary  by  the  State  or  by  the  dis- 
trict, it  must  be  sufficient  to  sustain  a  self-respecting 
man  or  woman  through  a  whole  year.  This  is  the 
basis  of  permanent  teaching.  Our  school  in  the 
valley  will  not  prosper,  if  it  is  not  able  to  retain  a 
teacher,  once  selected,  who  serves  the  needs  of  the 
neighborhood.  Without  at  least  three  years  of  con- 
secutive, devoted  service  by  a  teacher  any  country 
school  will  be  inefficient.  No  teacher  can  become  a 
part  of  the  vital  organization  of  a  district,  if  he 
does  not  stay  there  for  year  after  year,  and  no  coun- 
try school  district  can  select  its  teacher  without  the 
leverage  of  an  adequate  salary.  If  the  teacher, 
moreover,  has  to  work  at  something  else  in  vaca- 
tion, if  he  has  not  a  sufficient  living  to  attend  sum- 
mer schools  and  improve  year  by  year  in  school  and 
pedagogic  wisdom,  the  school  will  retrograde. 
Therefore  the  salary  of  the  teacher  must  be  ade- 
quate for  a  year's  living. 

Adequate  Supervision.  Secondly,  there  is  need 
in  the  open  country  of  adequate  supervision  of  the 
common  schools.  Except  in  New  England,  where 
in  some  States  the  supervision  is  by  farmers,  every 
State  has  county  superintendents  of  schools.  But 
the  county  unit  is  too  large  for  one  man  to  cover. 
One  superintendent  in  Illinois  has  a  territory  so 


CENTRALIZED   SCHOOL,    INDIANA 
CENTRALIZED   SCHOOL,   OHIO 


Schools  for  Country  Life  55 

large  that  it  would  require  forty  days,  and  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-two  miles  of  travel,  to  visit  the 
schools  for  which  he  is  responsible.  Moreover,  ade- 
quate supervision  should  be  by  trained  teachers. 
At  present  the  superintendent  may  or  may  not  be 
a  teacher,  but  he  must  be  a  politician.  It  would  be 
better  for  the  supervisors  of  the  county  to  appoint 
the  superintendent  than  for  the  voters  to  elect  him. 
For  the  training  of  these  superintendents  there 
should  be  special  courses  provided.  These  meas- 
ures would  give  adequate  supervision  of  rural 
schools,  in  the  interest  of  the  country  community. 

A  New  Grouping.  One-room  school  districts 
should  be  grouped  on  a  new  principle.  The  county 
unit  is  too  large  and  the  township  is  often  too 
small  for  proper  supervision,  but  the  visits  of  the 
trained  superintendent  should  be  frequent  enough 
to  give  him  intimate  command  of  details  in  every 
one  of  the  schools  under  his  charge.  This  will  give 
some  kind  of  team  work  in  the  problem  of  rural 
education.  The  teacher  will  not  be  loaded  with  the 
whole  burden  of  a  separate  educational  system. 
Behind  him  will  stand  the  trained  and  official  super- 
vision of  the  superintendent ;  and  the  country  school 
district  will  become  a  part,  through  his  presence  and 
the  competition  with  other  neighboring  districts 
which  he  shall  skilfully  suggest,  of  the  larger  rural 
community. 

Rural  School  Consolidation.  But  for  most  of 
the  schools  in  the  country  consolidation  and  cen- 
tralization of  the  schools  will  be  necessary.    By  this 


56  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

is  meant  not  the  assembling  of  country  pupils  in 
the  village  or  town  but  the  organization  of  the 
educational  problem  out  among  the  farms.  For  the 
life  of  a  town  or  village  is  in  an  industrial  process 
different  from  that  which  controls  the  life  of  coun- 
try people.  Farming  is  the  greatest  of  all  voca- 
tions, and  it  needs  schools  of  its  own.  It  is  the 
fundamental  and  most  pervasive  of  industries,  and 
the  schooling  of  the  boy  or  girl  for  the  farm  will  be 
a  more  effective  preparation  for  all  occupations 
than  will  the  schooling  of  boys  and  girls  for  com- 
merce, for  mechanical  trades,  or  for  professions. 

Districts  Merged  in  One.  We  believe,  therefore, 
that  the  schools  of  the  rural  community  should  be 
merged  in  one.  The  country  community  has  a 
radius  of  the  team  haul.  The  horse-drawn  vehicle 
for  a  long  time  to  come  will  standardize  the  range 
of  rural  social  experience.  At  the  center,  there- 
fore, of  the  team-haul  radius  should  be  built  an  ade- 
quate school  building.  The  one-room  schools 
should  be  closed.  Districts  may  thus  be  assembled, 
two  or  five  or  seven  or  nine  in  number,  and  their 
children  transported  daily  to  the  central  school  in 
wagons  hired  for  that  purpose.  Nothing  will  do 
more  for  the  reorganizing  of  country  life  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  community  spirit  than  this  daily 
assembling  of  the  children  from  the  households 
which  have  a  common  experience  in  the  country, 
to  study  together  the  problems  of  life. 

Example  of  Completed  Process.  This  process 
has  practically  been  completed  in  several  counties 


Schools  for  Country  Life  57 

of  northeastern  Ohio.  They  have  passed  through 
pioneer,  household,  and  speculative  eras,  and  are  in 
the  dawn  of  organized  agriculture.  The  consolida- 
tion of  schools  is  an  evidence  of  their  attainment 
of  this  maturity. 

Modernized  Plant  and  Its  Purpose.  The  con- 
solidated school  as  it  exists  in  mature  communities 
is  a  brick  building,  generally  placed  on  a  country 
road  at  a  point  independent  of  town  or  village 
centers.  It  has  four  rooms  and  an  auditorium 
overhead  for  recreation  and  for  public  gatherings. 
It  has  in  the  basement  an  adequate  heating  plant 
with  a  water-pressure  system.  The  John  Swaney 
school  in  Putnam  County,  Illinois,  has  a  room  in 
the  basement  devoted  to  manual  training.  It  has  in 
one  of  the  classrooms  an  apparatus  for  teaching 
cooking  and  sewing,  and  the  auditorium  on  the 
third  floor  is  large  enough  to  seat  two  hundred  and 
fifty  people.  It  is  fitted  up  for  basket-ball  games. 
Out-of-doors  this  school  has  about  twenty-four 
acres  in  a  beautiful  campus  shaded  with  majestic 
trees  and  containing  a  baseball  diamond,  football 
gridiron,  and  several  tennis  courts.  There  is  also 
an  old  school  building  now  turned  into  a  home  for 
the  five  resident  teachers.  This  school  has  main- 
tained its  teaching  courses  with  a  continuous  mem- 
bership year  after  year.  There  are  four  teachers 
and  a  principal.  Such  a  school  can  have — and  in- 
evitably it  will  have — a  system  of  teaching  agricul- 
ture. For  the  demand  which  the  farmer  is  making, 
either  actively  or  passively  of  the  country  school. 


58  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

is  that  it  shall  teach  scientific  agriculture.  It  will 
teach  not  only  agriculture  but  country  life,  not  to 
make  farmers,  but  to  teach  children  in  terms  of 
their  own  experience.  The  John  Swaney  school 
and  the  school  at  Rock  Creek  have  a  piece  of  land 
devoted  to  the  purposes  of  an  experiment  farm. 
At  the  John  Swaney  School  this  farm  supervision 
is  under  the  Illinois  State  Experiment  Station. 
This  teaching  is  not  for  the  making  of  farmers, 
but  men  and  women.  It  must  be  more  than  a  mere 
school  of  rural  money-making.  The  teaching  of 
agriculture  needed  in  the  schools  is  for  the  purpose 
of  training  in  country  life.  The  country  school 
must  make  the  open  country  worth  while.  It  will 
teach  agriculture  as  the  basis  of  an  ideal  life,  rather 
than  as  a  quick  way  of  profits. 

Advantages  of  Riding  to  School.  Families  on  the 
outer  bounds  of  the  consolidated  school  district 
sometimes  complain  of  its  exceptional  burdens 
which  fall  upon  them,  but  this  difficulty  inheres  in 
the  present  system.  The  small  boy  who  lives  on  the 
outer  boundary  of  a  school  district  two  miles  or 
three  from  the  one-room  school,  has  exceptional 
hardships  in  his  daily  trudge  to  school.  Many  a 
middle-aged  man  remembers  the  chilblains  and 
frosted  ears  or  finger-tips  from  the  long  walk  to 
school,  and  even  in  summer  the  weary  trudge  with 
books  and  dinner  pail  was  a  burden.  In  the  State 
of  Minnesota,  where  consolidated  schools  have  been 
highly  perfected,  the  children  who  come  through 
the  bitter  winter  in  the  stages  many  miles  to  school 


Schools  for  Country  Life  59 

arrive  in  better  condition  and  do  better  work 
throughout  the  day  than  the  children  who  live 
near-by  and  walk. 

Results  of  Religious  Motive.  These  two  Illinois 
schools  were  consolidated  under  the  influence  of 
religious  men.  John  Swaney  is  a  Quaker  and  his 
action  in  giving  land  and  money  for  this  school 
was  in  obedience  to  the  principles  of  the  Quaker 
Meeting,  for  the  Friends  have  always  been  organ- 
izers of  communities  in  the  country.  The  group 
of  farmers  at  Rock  Creek,  of  whom  Mr.  R.  E.  Bone 
was  the  leader,  are  Presbyterians  and  their  influ- 
ence on  consolidating  the  public  schools  of  Rock 
Creek  has  been  a  religious  ministry  to  the  com- 
munity in  which  their  church  is  the  only  house  of 
worship.  These  Christian  men  have  interpreted  for 
their  time  the  duty  of  Christian  citizens  in  this 
building  up  of  the  community  through  the  schools. 

Social  and  Church  Center.  The  consolidated 
schools  of  these  mature  farming  communities  in 
the  Middle  West  are  great  social  centers.  The  daily 
coming  and  going  of  the  children  turns  the  tide 
of  social  life  toward  the  center.  Dr.  Willet  M. 
Hayes  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Wash- 
ington is  an  ardent  believer  in  the  consolidated 
school  district  as  the  unit  in  rural  life.  He  believes' 
that  at  every  consolidated  school  there  should  be  a 
a  church,  an  experiment  farm,  a  playground,  and 
in  one  of  the  public  buildings  thus  provided  he 
would  furnish  rooms,  if  necessary,  for  a  rural 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association.    There  should 


6o  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

be  at  the  center  also  the  residences  of  the  leaders 
of  the  community;  teachers,  preachers,  organizers 
of  social  life.  It  would  follow,  and  in  these  mature 
communities  it  does  follow,  that  the  streams  of  social 
influence  would  flow  in  and  out  of  this  center  and 
unite  the  whole  countryside.  Here  the  young  men 
and  women  will  form  their  attachments  for  a  life- 
time and  here  the  farmers  and  their  neighbors  will 
meet  at  the  periodic  gatherings  for  recreation.  At 
this  center  the  entertainer,  the  lecturer  and  musician, 
will  find  their  audiences,  and  hither  people  will  come 
on  the  day  of  rest  for  their  common  worship.  In- 
evitably the  habits  of  community  fellowship  will 
generate  habits  of  common  worship.  The  commun- 
ity by  its  own  forces  thus  released  and  organized 
will  gather  around  the  common  center  and  place 
there  or  near  at  hand  the  meeting-house  for  the 
worship  of  God. 

Sections  Organized.  Such  consolidated  schools 
are  numerous  in  Indiana.  There  are  a  few  in  Penn- 
sylvania. There  are  several  counties  organized  in 
northern  Iowa.  In  Georgia  a  whole  section  of 
farming  country  was  settled  since  the  war  by  people 
who  in  slavery  days  were  poor,  and  their  intense 
social  inclinations  have  led  them,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  exclude  the  Negro,  and  on  the  other  to  con- 
solidate their  own  educational  and  social  interests. 
Every  one  of  these  farming  sections  has  attained 
to  rapid  maturity.  The  centralized  country  school 
is  at  once  the  effect  and  the  cause  of  agricultural 
maturity. 


Schools  for  Country  Life  6i 

Work  of  the  Agricultural  Colleges.  Among  the 
strong  influences  working  for  the  betterment  of 
country  life  is  the  extension  work  of  the  agricul- 
tural colleges.  State  and  national  departments  of 
agriculture  send  out  their  lecturers,  organizers,  and 
demonstrators.  These  men  and  women  have  been 
in  the  past  ten  years  the  heralds  of  organized  farm- 
ing. The  story  of  this  influence  goes  back  to  the 
Land  Grant  Act  in  1862,  by  which  valuable  lands 
were  assigned  by  the  national  government  to  the 
various  States  for  the  purposes  of  agricultural  edu- 
cation. These  colleges  are  therefore  at  work  in 
every  State.  For  a  long  time  their  influence  was 
small.  Their  teachers  were  called  book  farmers. 
But  within  the  past  ten  years  they  have  got  hold 
of  their  work  with  a  more  social  grasp.  This  has 
been  accomplished  both  by  the  improvement  of  the 
courses  and  by  the  more  thorough  scientific  train- 
ing of  the  teachers,  and  above  all  by  the  extension 
work  of  these  colleges,  through  lecturers,  demon- 
strators, and  organizers.  This  is  not  the  place  for  a 
canvass  of  their  work.  Enough  to  say  that  in  every 
State  the  church  or  school  in  the  country  has  a 
right  to  claim  the  services  of  teachers  or  lecturers 
from  the  State  college  or  State  department  of  agri- 
culture. In  some  of  the  States,  as  in  New  York, 
these  speakers  are  furnished  within  certain  limits 
without  cost  to  the  community.  These  demonstra- 
tors are  of  great  value,  especially  in  the  South, 
where  they  are  fighting  the  battle  of  the  farmer 
against  the  enemies  of  the  cotton  and  the  com  crop. 


62  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

T3rpical  Instances.  A  good  illustration  of  their 
efficiency  is  in  a  church  in  Texas  of  the  Baptist 
denomination.  The  ladies  of  this  church  under 
the  guidance  of  the  expert  from  Washington  are 
regularly  hiring  a  piece  of  land  from  a  farmer, 
planting  it  according  to  the  specifications  furnished 
by  the  expert,  and  hiring  the  tillage  of  the  crop  in 
accordance  with  his  rules.  They  have  reaped  year 
by  year  a  substantial  profit  on  the  transaction  for 
their  church  funds;  but  they  have  done  a  greater 
thing  in  demonstrating  to  the  farmer  both  that 
the  Church  would  teach  better  farming  and  better 
living  and  also  that  the  science  of  the  Washington 
department  is  better  business.  In  Oklahoma  there 
are  farmers  who  under  the  direction  of  the  Wash- 
ington expert  are  leasing  land  to  their  tenants  and 
writing  into  the  lease  the  specifications  which  re- 
quire scientific  tillage  of  their  soil.  Thus  the  fer- 
tility of  the  soil  is  preserved,  and  the  profit  both  of 
the  farmer  and  of  the  owner  are  raised  to  the 
highest  point.  There  are  churches  in  New  York 
State  which,  combining  to  form  a  farmers'  club, 
invite  the  experts  from  Cornell  University  to  lec- 
ture year  after  year  in  the  systematic  education  of 
the  farmers  as  to  the  economic  use  of  their  soil  and 
maintenance  of  it  for  generations  to  come. 

Value  for  Church  Life.  This  use  of  scientific 
agriculture  is  necessary  to  the  upbuilding  and  to 
the  survival  of  the  country  Church.  Professor  T. 
N.  Carver,  of  Harvard  University,  in  a  recent  ad- 
dress, has  insisted  that  the  Church  should  promote 


Schools  for  Country  Life  63 

scientific  husbandry  in  the  interest  of  the  whole  com- 
munity and  in  the  interest  of  its  own  future.  His 
thesis  is  that  organized  reHgion  in  the  country  is  de- 
pendent on  that  intelHgence  and  that  economic  pros- 
perity which  are  involved  in  better  farming  for  its 
continued  intelHgence  and  for  its  moral  power. 

Era  of  Academies.  There  was  a  time  when  in 
country  communities  there  were  academies,  usu- 
ally founded  by  the  Churches  and  owned  by  them, 
which  took  the  place  for  country  people  of  the  col- 
lege in  modern  life.  They  were  centers  of  culture. 
Their  teachers  were  classical  scholars  and  they  im- 
parted to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  farmers  the 
high  ideals  and  the  knowledge  of  the  great  world 
which  dignified  the  household  farmer.  These 
schools  had  a  great  influence.  They  were  frankly 
religious  in  their  foundation,  but  with  the  exten- 
sion of  the  high  school  system  under  the  State  con- 
trol very  many  of  them  have  been  closed.  Little 
by  little  the  subsidies  of  Church  boards  have  been 
withdrawn,  scholars  have  been  unwilling  to  pay 
tuition  for  this  schooling  when  they  could  have 
good  secular  training  in  the  high  schools  in  the 
near-by  towns.  This  has  been  a  great  loss  in  coun- 
try life. 

May  Become  Folk  Schools.  The  high  school  is 
cold  and  indifferent.  It  is  often  dominated  by 
politics  and  its  ideals  are  generally  lower  than  were 
those  of  the  old  academy,  as  the  ethical  and  esthetic 
standards  are  not  equal  to  those  of  the  academy. 
It  is  useless,  however,  to  lament  the  days  which  will 


64  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

never  be  restored,  and  the  academies  are  mentioned 
here  in  order  to  suggest  that  those  which  can  be  re- 
vived should  be  transformed  into  folk  high  schools, 
such  as  have  had  a  great  influence  in  Denmark.^ 

Must  Have  Country  Emphasis.  These  folk  high 
schools  have  all  the  enthusiasm  of  the  modern 
Chautauqua,  with  an  added  thoroughness.  They 
have  the  precise  and  orderly  curriculum  of  the  old 
academy,  but  their  term  is  not  more  than  six  months, 
while  the  academy  course  was  often  as  long  as  six 
years.  Their  purpose  is  industrial  training  which 
shall  fit  the  country  boy  to  live  in  the  country  and 
the  girl  to  prefer  the  farmhouse  as  her  home,  while 
the  academies  taught  a  classical  culture  which  in- 
troduced the  farmer's  son  into  the  great  world. 
The  suggestion  is,  therefore,  that  the  academy  be 
completely  transformed  and  the  currents  of  its  life 
reversed.  If  it  is  to  live  in  the  days  to  come  it 
shall  no  longer  be  a  stepping-stone  out  of  the  coun- 
try community,  a  gangway  for  going  off  into  the 
city,  but  it  shall  become  an  anchorage  in  the  country 
community,  an  organizing  of  motives  for  agricul- 
ture and  for  work. 

Ideal  Enthusiasm.  These  folk  schools,  however, 
possess  one,  and  it  is  the  central,  characteristic  of 
the  old  academy  schools;  they  are  filled  with  en- 
thusiasm, with  a  national  and  patriotic  and  religious 
spirit.  The  old  academies  were  centers  of  the 
noblest  idealism  of  their  day.  They  trained  men 
for  leadership.    The  folk  schools  have  been  in  Den- 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


Schools  for  Country  Life  65 

mark  centers  of  enthusiasm.  They  have  written 
and  sung  their  own  songs.  They  have  filled  the 
whole  country  with  their  music  and  their  happy 
spirit.  The  following  song  is  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar in  Denmark.  It  was  written  by  Bishop  Grundt- 
vig,  the  founder  of  these  schools,  and  this  transla- 
tion is  made  by  Mr.  George  Koefod  Fernstrom. 

Church-bell,  lost  in  great  and  noisy  city, 
Thou  wert  cast  for  towns  where  far  and  nigh 

All  can  hear  whene'er  a  babe  is  weeping 
Or  a  mother  sings  her  lullaby. 

When  a  child  I  lived  near  fields  and  forest. 
Like  a  heaven  to  me  was  Christmas  morn, 

Like  an  angel's  voice,  glad  tidings  bringing, 
Told  thy  chimes  of  joy  to  mankind  borne. 

Higher  still  thy  notes  my  soul  uplifted 
When  they  rang  with  Easter-sun's  first  ray, 

Chimed:  "Rejoice,  thy  Savior  has  arisen! 
Thou,  too,  rise  in  dawn  of  Easter-day ! " 

Lovely,  too,  in  harvest  time  to  hear  thee 
In  the  evening  hours  with  quiet  blest, 

List'ning,  while  thy  heavenly  voice  comes  floating 
Over  earth  to  call  all  souls  to  rest. 

Yes,  whenever  now  the  curfew  tells  me 
That  the  sun  is  down,  the  birds  asleep, 

With  the  flowers  I  bow  my  head  and  softly 
In  between  thy  strokes  this  prayer  will  creep: 

Church-bell !  tho'  my  dust  shall  never  hear  thee 

Tolling  over  it,  O  tell  them  all. 
Cheer  my  dear  ones,  tell  them  thither  went  he. 

Leaving  as  the  sun  sets  in  the  fall. 

Use  for  the  Sunday-school.  What  has  been  said 
about  common  schools  rises  often  to  its  best  in 
the  country  in  the  Sunday-school.    The  reader  asks. 


66  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

"How  shall  these  things  be  done?"  I  would  not 
assert  that  the  Sunday-school  can  do  them  all,  but 
the  beginning  of  the  reconstruction  of  a  country 
place  is  often  the  founding  of  a  Sunday-school. 
The  limitations  of  Sunday-school  work  are  well 
known  and  you  will  find  these  limitations  if  you  do 
Sunday-school  work;  but  it  is  well  to  go  ahead  to 
the  limit  before  you  try  another  method.  Country 
people  are  religious.  They  believe  that  their  chil- 
dren should  learn  religion.  More  than  they  crave 
the  gospel  for  themselves,  they  believe  in  it  for  their 
little  ones.  It  is  frequently  possible  to  enlist  rough 
men  who  know  no  Scripture  and  profess  no  religion 
in  the  support  of  an  active  school  for  the  children 
on  Sunday,  because  of  the  universal  belief  of  all 
serious  men  in  the  necessity  of  religious  training 
for  the  young. 

Its  Appeal  to  Even  Rough  Men.  There  is  here 
a  very  profound  religious  thought.  The  president 
of  a  noted  theological  seminary  tells  the  story  of 
a  Sunday-school  organizer  in  Michigan  whose  work 
brought  him  to  a  godless,  disorderly  town,  with  no 
religious  services  whatever.  When  he  announced 
his  intention  of  organizing  a  Sunday-school  the 
violent  element  of  the  community  announced  that 
they  would  break  it  up.  The  Sunday-school  man 
went  calmly  ahead,  trusting  in  God,  and  his  help 
came  from  a  strange  source.  Feeling  in  the  com- 
munity mounted  high  as  Sunday  morning  ap- 
proached, and  most  of  the  population  were  present 
at  the  meeting  to  discuss  the  proposed  Sunday- 


Schools  for  Country  Life  67 

school.  When  he  called  for  those  interested  in  the 
school,  only  a  few  women  responded.  But  after 
his  address,  a  rough  figure  stepped  forward  from 
among  the  men  and  facing  the  preacher  said  that  he 
had  "  heard  tell  "  that  some  one  was  going  to  break 
up  this  Sunday-school.  For  his  part  he  thought 
it  was  bad  enough  for  the  grown  people  in  this 
neighborhood,  and  he  would  like  to  see  something 
done  for  the  children.  He  concluded  his  brief  re- 
marks by  declaring  that  he  could  not  teach — even 
within  profanely  described  limits — but  he  promised 
to  attend  the  Sunday-school  every  time  it  met  and 
stand  at  the  door  and  "  bust  "  perdition  out  of  any 
man  who  tried  to  interfere.  He  was  the  biggest 
leader  of  rowdies  in  the  neighborhood  and  all  the 
rough  element  feared  him.  There  was  really  no 
profanity  in  his  offer:  his  language  was  perfectly 
understood  by  the  crowd,  and  he  was  as  good  as 
his  word.  Under  his  fostering  protection,  purely 
physical  in  outward  form,  the  Sunday-school  grew 
and  thrived  and  shortly  had  abundance  of  support 
from  all  sources. 

A  Means  of  Rural  Reconstruction.  No  other 
method  of  religious  teaching  has  so  great  actual 
value  in  America.  If  the  Sunday-school  leaders 
but  knew  it,  they  have  the  vehicle  for  rural  recon- 
struction. The  possibilities  of  Sunday-school  teach- 
ing have  not  been  reached,  because  the  leadership 
of  the  Sunday-school  forces  is  too  often  conserva- 
tive, timorous,  and  prejudiced.  This  situation, 
however,  is  rapidly  changing,  for  the  Sunday-school 


68  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

leadership  of  the  country  is  taking  advanced  ground 
as  to  the  place  of  the  Sunday-school  in  the  solution 
of  all  the  problems  of  the  Church.  The  new 
graded  courses  are  built  with  the  one  distinct  pur- 
pose of  training  a  generation  of  Christians  for 
faithful  and  efficient  service.  This  will  be  a  great 
help,  for  the  essentials  for  building  the  rural  com- 
munity are  in  the  Sunday-school,  which  is  inter- 
denominational. It  is  an  elastic  and  an  inexpensive 
medium  of  religious  work  and  its  appeal  is  to  the 
young.  Above  all  it  is  a  religious  work,  and  to 
this  day  there  is  no  other  call  which  can  bring  coun- 
try people  to  the  center  of  the  community  all  stand- 
ing at  attention  to  the  same  degree  to  which  a  re- 
ligious call  can  assemble  them. 

Devotional  Access  to  the  Community.  How- 
ever, the  rule  in  rural  work  is  to  do  that  for  which 
you  have  leaders.  Bearing  in  mind,  then,  that  the 
Sunday-school  will  be  limited  in  its  value  by  the 
largeness  of  mind  possessed  by  its  leaders,  let  us 
consider  it  as  a  means  of  rural  reconstruction.  Its 
first  great  value  is  its  devotional  access  to  the  com- 
munity. The  Sunday-school  offers  the  Bible  to 
country  people.  It  does  not  need  to  plead  for  its 
cause.  They  already  desire  its  ministry.  It  can 
be  therefore  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge,  however 
broad  the  head  shall  be. 

Service  of  the  New  and  Old  Testaments.  The 
Sunday-school,  therefore,  should  teach  the  New 
Testament  for  its  spirit  and  the  Old  Testament  for 
its  country  life  inspiration.     The  New  Testament 


Schools  for  Country  Life  69 

commands  the  personal  devotion  of  individuals.  It 
is  the  great  book  for  leaders.  Jesus  is  the  master  of 
the  masters  of  men.  The  inspiration  for  individ- 
uals who  are  to  serve  will  be  found  in  his  words  and 
in  the  story  of  his  deeds.  In  approaching,  there- 
fore, the  Old  Testament  as  the  great  book  of  coun- 
try life,  the  scholars  should  be  taken  every  year  into 
the  Gospels  and  into  the  story  of  the  early  Church 
for  its  power  of  compelling  personal  devotion. 

Authority  and  Influence  of  Jesus.  The  authority 
of  Jesus  Christ  over  the  individual  soul  must  always 
be  the  clue  to  every  social  endeavor.  This  will  be 
called  evangelism  by  many,  and  the  word  is  excel- 
lent if  it  be  understood  in  its  broadest  meaning  as 
a  preparation  for  service.  Central  to  this  melting 
of  the  heart  and  offering  of  it  to  the  community  in 
the  name  of  God  must  ever  be  the  influence  of 
Jesus  himself,  in  the  story  of  the  Gospels  for  the 
little  children,  in  the  history  of  his  life  for  adoles- 
cents, and  in  the  development  of  this  history 
through  the  apostles  and  the  early  Church  for 
adults.  The  influence  of  this  New  Testament  teach- 
ing is  overpowering.  If  the  leaders  of  the  com- 
munity be  brought  in  their  preparation  directly 
into  contact  with  the  actual  story  of  the  Master's 
life  from  his  birth  unto  his  glorious  crucifixion  and 
resurrection,  and  the  tremendous  days  before  he  de- 
parted from  the  eyes  of  men,  it  will  abide  with  them 
in  all  the  ministry  for  which  they  are  being  pre- 
pared. 

Group  of  Leaders'  Study.    The  value  in  the  Sun- 


yo  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

day-school  of  a  group  study  by  the  leaders  them- 
selves must  be  mentioned.  This  group  is  commonly 
called  the  teachers'  training  class,  but  I  shrink  from 
the  term  because  we  are  considering  something 
more  real  than  such  a  formal  meeting  could  be. 
The  important  thing  is  to  assemble  kindred  spirits 
whose  devotion  can  be  blended  in  one.  If  it  be 
necessary  for  this  purpose  to  omit  any  of  the  teach- 
ers, then  the  group, should  be  assembled  in  a  suitable 
place,  including  only  those  who  can  be  trusted.  By 
all  means  the  center  of  the  community  for  devotion 
and  for  service  should  be  the  periodic  meeting  for 
the  study  of  the  Scripture  to  be  used  in  the  school 
and  for  the  planning  of  other  work.  Here  only 
kindred  spirits  shall  be  present  who  will  violate  no 
confidence  and  who  will  unite  in  a  devotion  to  the 
Master  and  to  the  community. 

A  Meeting  for  Counsel.  Where  the  uniform  les- 
sons are  used  the  weekly  lesson  will  have  its  place, 
but  this  should  not  be  considered  formal.  The 
teachers'  meeting  is  not  a  place  for  cramming  or 
a  substitute  for  study  on  the  part  of  the  teacher. 
Where  the  graded  lessons  are  taught  there  will 
be  no  opportunity  for  definite  lesson  study.  In 
either  case  ample  time  should  be  taken  up  with 
a  study  and  discussion  of  methods  of  teaching. 
The  literature  on  this  subject  from  a  Sunday-, 
school  standpoint  is  abundant,  and  should  be  widely 
used.  Anything  that  will  help  m'ake  a  more  effi- 
cient Sunday-school  will  be  a  long  step  in  solving 
the  problem  of  religious  education  in  the  country. 


Schools  for  Country  Life  71 

The  program  should  include  frank,  earnest  discus- 
sion of  every  interest  of  the  community  and  of 
every  person,  so  far  as  is  helpful,  in  the  com- 
munity. This  meeting  should  be  for  the  purpose 
of  planning  and  forwarding  the  conversion  of  men 
and  their  enlistment  in  the  service  of  the  commu- 
nity. At  this  place  the  influence  of  these  leaders 
should  be  determined  in  common  and  their  action 
toward  every  project  in  the  whole  community  should 
be  pledged. 

United  Prayer  and  Planning  for  Community. 
Such  a  meeting  should  never  close  without  devoted 
and  common  prayer,  not  formal,  but  earnest  and 
shared  as  far  as  possible  by  all.  If  this  central 
heart  of  the  community  cannot  beat  in  terms  of 
prayer,  it  will  not  be  safe  for  the  openness  of  speech 
and  frankness  of  discussion  to  be  observed  which 
I  have  commended.  But  if  the  meeting  can  be 
genuinely  devotional,  then  it  can  be  entirely  con- 
fidential. Such  a  gathering  of  leaders  central  to  a 
working  Sunday-school  can  lift  the  whole  commu- 
nity in  the  name  of  Christ. 

Gospel  of  the  Country.  The  Old  Testament  is 
the  gospel  of  country  life  for  Christian  folk.  It 
is  the  story  of  the  settlement  of  a  wandering  people 
in  a  holy  land.  America  is  to  her  people  the  prom- 
ised land,  but  its  promise  of  freedom  and  of  a 
righteous  commonwealth  moving  in  freedom  to  the 
ends  of  justice  has  not  yet  been  satisfied.  We  are 
in  America  at  some  such  stage  of  development  as  is 
pictured  in  the  Book  of  Judges.    "  Every  man  does 


72  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes,"  and  the  great  period 
of  the  development  of  the  American  commonwealth 
is  to  come.  We  are  disappointed  and  disillusioned 
of  many  early  ideals.  Puritanism  from  New  Eng- 
land does  not  satisfy  serious  and  earnest  men  as 
once  it  did.  The  Quakerism  and  the  Presbyterian- 
ism  of  Pennsylvania  are  not  convincing  to  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Quakers  and  of  the  Scotch-Irish;  nor 
is  the  aristocratic  faith  of  the  old  Southern  States 
believed  in  the  South  as  once  it  was  believed.  Yet 
the  people  have  hope  in  God  and  religious  feeling  is 
general  throughout  the  country.  Like  the  Old 
Testament  Jews  we  are  wandering.  The  farmer  is 
not  settled  nor  contented  on  the  land.  When  he 
has  secured  a  competence  he  does  not  remain  a 
farmer,  but  desires  to  retire  to  the  town.  Men  are 
not  contented  to  produce  and  they  do  not  teach 
their  children  to  be  producers,  but  more  and  more 
the  exodus  from  the  country  is  increasing  the  class 
of  consumers  and  diminishing  those  who  raise  the 
food  and  raw  materials.  We  need  the  new  doc- 
trine which  Professor  L.  H.  Bailey  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity describes  under  the  title,  "  The  Holy 
Earth." 

Up-to-date  Messages.  The  teaching  of  the  Old 
Testament  through  Sunday-schools  is  the  service 
which  religious  people  can  render  in  making  of  the 
farmer  a  permanent  and  a  happy  tiller  of  the  soil. 
Its  legislation  was  for  an  agricultural  people  and 
its  hymns,  which  we  call  psalms,  are  the  songs  of 
a  rural  people  who  love  the  land,  the  hills  and  the 


Schools  for  Country  Life  73    / 

( 
mountains,  as  few  Americans  love  the  country.    Its   ( 

doctrine  of  Providence  rises  to  its  height  in  that  \ 
simplest  of  the  psalms  about  the  shepherd  and  his  / 
sheep.  The  messages  of  the  prophets  were  obvi-  / 
ously  sermons  preached  by  great  souls  made  anxious 
because  the  people  were  deserting  the  land,  and 
moving  into  the  cities.  Isaiah  denounces  those 
things  which  are  done  to-day  in  Indiana,  Illinois, 
and  Iowa.  The  evils  of  absentee  landlordism,  the 
decadence  of  the  retired  farmer,  and  the  pitiful 
condition  of  the  tenant  farmer  are  all  pictured  in 
the  histories  and  prophecies  and  the  legislation  of 
the  Old  Testament.  It  is  assuredly  not  asking  too 
much  of  the  Sunday-school  in  the  country  that  these 
lessons  of  country  life  should  be  taught  in  the  same 
religious  spirit  in  which  they  were  first  spoken  and 
written. 

Some  Required  Teachings.  Very  often  the 
bounds  of  the  Sunday-school  are  at  the  covers  of  the 
Bible.  Few  Sunday-school  teachers  have  been  able 
to  use  the  Sunday-school  as  a  means  of  teaching 
patriotism,  the  knowledge  of  missions,  and  social 
service.  If  the  Sunday-school  cannot  have  classes 
in  these  great  themes,  if  it  is  impossible  in  the  coun- 
try for  citizenship  so  to  be  taught  in  a  class  of  men 
that  the  buying  and  selling  of  votes  shall  be  ex- 
tinguished by  the  members  of  that  class  in  that 
community,  then  these  classes  and  groups  must  be 
assembled  elsewhere.  But  the  Sunday-school  is 
the  simplest  medium  for  the  teaching  of  righteous- 
ness and  of  every  religious  message  needed  by  the 


74  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

community,  and  in  the  Sunday-school  all  these  ef- 
forts to  teach  the  young  and  the  old  in  the  name  of 
God  should  be  organized. 

Call  for  New  Ideals.  The  great  business,  how- 
ever, of  the  schoolmaster,  whether  he  be  paid  or 
unpaid,  professional  or  volunteer,  is  to  idealize 
country  life.  Ideals  do  not  come  in  books,  but  they 
grow  out  of  experience.  Those  which  come  through 
books  are  often  imported  and  artificial.  They  are 
cherished  in  the  mind,  but  not  practised  in  the  life. 
Such  ideals  are  false  and  delusive.  Ideals  that  are 
true  grow  out  of  situations  and  conditions.  Coun- 
try life  is  a  great  situation,  and  as  "  new  condi- 
tions make  new  duties,"  the  study  of  country  life 
rouses  men  in  our  day  to  new  services  and  new 
work.  Therefore  the  greatest  religious  ministry 
which  we  can  render  in  the  country  to-day  is  the 
dignifying  of  life  and  work  in  the  open  country. 
There  at  our  hand  are  beauty,  health,  and  every 
spring  of  sentiment.  Mankind  loves  the  country  in- 
stinctively, if  only  he  may  find  reasons  there  for 
living  and  sources  there  of  social  contentment.  The 
business  of  the  religious  leaders  is  to  bring  God 
into  the  country  and  make  country  life  a  religion. 
This  is  what  it  means  to  idealize  country  life.  It 
cannot  be  imported,  but  the  ideals  of  country  life 
must  be  new,  modern,  and  must  grow  out  of  the 
experience  of  people  now  living  in  that  country 
place.  Such  ennobling  of  the  life  of  the  commu- 
nity will  call  on  every  resource  of  the  country  Church 
and  of  its  people.     Without  this  dignifying  of  the 


Schools  for  Country  Life  75 

community  there  can  be  no  religion  for  the  people 
who  live  there,  for  they  will  always  be  discon- 
tented and  desiring  to  live  elsewhere.  They  will 
have  the  heart  of  nomads  and  they  can  never  rise 
above  the  morals  of  nomads,  for  "  Out  of  the  heart 
are  the  issues  of  life."  The  business  of  the  country 
Church  is  to  convert  the  heart  of  the  countryman 
from  the  wandering  and  speculative,  discontented 
state  into  the  settlement,  with  happiness  and  abiding 
peace,  in  the  holy  land  of  America. 


RURAL  MORALITY  AND 
RECREATION 


The  "  play  of  the  spirit "  is  not  an  empty  phrase.  It  is  always 
the  spirit  that  plays.  Our  bodies  only  work.  The  spirit  at  play  is 
what  I  mean  by  the  higher   life. 

Play  is  the  pursuit  of  ideals.  When  released  from  the  daily  work, 
the  mill  we  have  tOj  tread  in  order  to  live,  then  we  strive  to  become 
what  we  would  be  if  we  could.  When  we  are  free  we  pursue  those 
ideals  which  indicate  and  create  character.  If  they  lead  us  toward 
wholesome  things, — literature,  music,  art,  debate,  golf,  tennis,  horse- 
back riding,  and  all  of  the  other  things  that  are  wholesome  and  good, — 
then  our  lives  are  rounded  out,  balanced,  and  significant. 

If  education  is  "  equipping  for  life,"  then  it  ought  to  be  divided 
into  two  parts,  equipment  for  work  and  equipment  for  play.  If  edu- 
cation is  bound  to  provide  us  with  the  luxuries  of  the  body,  it  ought 
also  at  least  to  furnish  us  with  the  necessities  of  the  soul.  It  must 
tell  us,  not  only  how  to  get  the  most  out  of  the  working  hours,  but 
also  how  to  spend  most  profitably  and  joyously  the  hours  that 
remain. — Luther   H.    Gulick 

The  Church  must  provide  directly  or  indirectly  some  modern  equiva- 
lent for  the  huskings,  apple  bees,  quiltings,  and  singing  schools  of  the 
old  days.  In  some  way  or  other  young  men  and  young  women  must 
have  opportunity  for  unconstrained  intercourse,  free  from  self- 
consciousness  and  artificiality.  This  may  take  the  form  of  clubs, 
parties,  picnics,  excursions,  or  what  you  please.  One  rule  is  abso- 
lute: the  Church  must  not  attempt  to  take  away  the  theater,  the 
dance,  the  card  party,  unless  it  can  give  in  its  place,  not  merely  a 
religious  or  intellectual  substitute,  like  a  prayer-meeting  or  a  literary 
society,   but  a   genuine  social   equivalent. — IVilliam  DeWitt  Hyde. 

Our  argument  rests  upon  the  favorable  showing  of  the  country 
as  a  whole  as  compared  with  the  city  as  a  whole.  As  tested  by  the 
symptoms  of  degeneracy,  the  country  is  in  as  healthful  a  state  as 
the  city,  where  the  advantages  and  wholesome  influences  of  civiliza- 
tion are  massed;  where  education  is  at  its  best;  where  eloquence  finds 
its  opportunity,  and  art  gathers  its  treasures;  where  wealth  commands 
all  resources,  and  taste  has  every  gratification;  where  churches  are 
powerful,  and  every  social  institution  cooperates  in  the  exaltation  of 
human  life.  That  the  country  is  not  distanced  by  the  city  in  social 
and  moral  development  almost  exceeds  belief,  or  to  use  the  terms 
with  which  we  began,  the  line  of  averages  in  social  and  moral  values 
is  at  a  surprising  height  in  the  country.  Now  if  a  part  of  the  rural 
communities  fall  below  this  line,  then  other  communities  rise  above 
it;  assuredly  as  many  are  above  as  below  the  line,  or  it  is  falsely 
called  an   average. — Wilbert   L.   Anderson 


78 


IV 

RURAL   MORALITY  AND   RECREATION 

New  Estimate  of  Play.  Religious  people  have 
always  recognized  the  close  connection  between  the 
amusements  of  the  community  and  public  morals. 
The  churches  of  old  times  used  to  forbid  their  mem- 
bers to  attend  meetings  for  amusement.  The  ethi- 
cal character  of  play  was  recognized,  but  the  austere 
policies  of  the  Church  recognized  only  its  immoral 
tendencies.  In  modern  times  serious  people  look 
on  play  as  a  moral  process,  having  close  and  inti- 
mate relations  with  conscience.  What  we  do  for 
hire,  or  under  the  orders  of  other  people,  or  in  the 
routine  of  life  is  done  because  we  have  to.  We  do 
not  choose  the  minor  acts  of  study  in  school,  of 
work  in  the  factory,  of  labor  on  the  house,  of  com- 
position in  writing  a  book.  All  these  little  acts  are 
part  of  a  routine  which  is  imposed  upon  us  and  we 
call  them  work.  But  play  is  entirely  voluntary. 
Every  action  is  chosen,  and  expresses  will  and 
preference..  Therefore,  play  is  highly  moral.  It  is 
the  bursting  up  of  our  own  individuality,  and  it 
expresses,  especially  in  the  lesser  things,  the  prefer- 
ences of  life. 

Moral  Value  of  Team-work.  Especially  is  team- 
work, which  characterizes  organized  play,  influen- 

79 


8o  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

tial  in  training  men  in  the  minor  moraHties.  I  am 
going  to  plead  in  this  chapter  for  these  Httle  moral- 
ities, the  lesser  goodnesses  of  life.  The  great 
school  for  training  men  in  these  little  things 
that  make  up  the  bulk  of  character  is  team- 
work and  cooperation  in  play.  Here  is  the  school 
of  obedience  to  others,  of  self-sacrifice  for  a  com- 
pany and  for  a  common  end,  of  honor  and  truthful- 
ness, of  the  subordination  of  one  to  another,  of 
courage,  of  persistent  devotion  to  a  purpose,  and  of 
cooperation.  "  The  reason  why  farmers  cannot  co- 
operate when  they  are  grown  up,"  says  a  well- 
known  country  minister,  "  is  in  the  fact  that  they 
did  not  learn  team-play  when  they  were  boys. 
They  never  learned  to  work  together  and  they  can- 
not obey  one  another." 

Religious  Basis  of  Morals.  There  are  some 
Christian  people  who  do  not  care  to  train  men  in 
morality.  I  sat  in  a  public  religious  assembly  dur- 
ing a  tedious  discussion  over  a  temperance  report. 
The  advocates  of  temperance  desired  ample  time 
for  their  subject,  and  finally  secured  it.  At  one  mo- 
ment in  the  discussion  a  black-clad  clergyman  leaned 
back  impatiently  in  his  seat  and  said,  "  What  is  the 
use  of  all  this  bother?  It  is  nothing  but  a  moral 
question,  anyway ! "  Such  a  man  will  have  no 
sympathy  with  the  demand  for  ethical  training. 
But  the  sources  of  morality  are  in  religious  faith. 
The  great  imperatives  of  personal  duty  are  locked 
up  with  the  belief  in  God  and  the  devotion  of  the 
soul  to  Jesus  Christ.     My  purpose  in  this  chapter 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  8i 

is  to  urge  that  recreation  be  used  by  religious  people 
as  a  means  of  moral  discipline  and  for  the  training 
of  young  people  and  working  people  in  righteous 
character,  both  in  little  and  in  great  things. 

Country  Temperance  Work.  The  first  word  on 
this  subject  must  be  to  the  praise  of  the  country 
Church  in  its  work  for  the  temperance  movement. 
Thirty  years  ago  temperance  meant  pledge-signing. 
It  was  not  then  a  rural  movement  as  to-day  it  is. 
The  whole  scope  of  temperance  reform  in  those 
days  consisted  in  securing  individual  pledges.  Men 
were  enlisted  as  total  abstainers  and  the  bulk  of  the 
movement  was  measured  by  the  number  who  had 
signed  the  pledge.  Not  only  drunkards  and  tip- 
plers were  solicited,  but  the  lists  were  filled  with 
the  names  of  boys  and  girls  and  of  sober,  serious 
people.  It  was  like  a  great  many  other  individualist 
movements. 

Growth  of  Local  Option.  The  service  of  the 
country  Church  has  been  to  socialize  the  temperance 
movement.  The  farmer  has  learned  to  hate  the 
saloon.  Under  the  leadership  of  country  churches, 
which  became  the  centers  of  discussion,  tem- 
perance reform  has  been  made  a  community  reform. 
It  has  been  transferred  from  pledge-signing  to  local 
option.  In  some  States  it  has  become  a  common- 
wealth reform.  In  these  instances  the  State  is  pre- 
dominantly agricultural,  and  the  farmers  vote  for 
State-wide  prohibition.  But  the  most  general  and 
the  most  mighty  temperance  reform  in  America  has 
been  the  farmer's  movement  for  local  option.     The 


82  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

pledge  has  been  signed  by  communities  and  by 
counties.  This  has  been  wrought  within  the  past 
twenty  years.  No  one  can  say  that  the  country 
Church  is  decadent  or  without  force  while  this 
splendid  record  attests  its  virility  and  its  social 
power.  The  temperance  movement,  however,  is 
cited  at  this  point  as  an  illustration  of  the  moral 
duty  of  country  churches  in  building  communities. 
The  temperance  reform  is  only  half  completed.  It 
has  been  a  negative  movement  for  the  expulsion  of 
saloons  from  communities.  The  country  com- 
munity is  empty,  swept,  and  garnished,  but  in  this 
process  no  positive  or  constructive  moral  work  has 
been  done.  There  is  need  of  deliberate  upbuilding 
of  country  life  by  the  country  Church. 

Constructive  Work  Needed.  This  weakness  of 
temperance  reform  is  illustrated  in  a  town  in  New 
England  from  which  the  sale  of  liquor  has  been 
abolished  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Moreover, 
the  law  is  generally  observed.  There  is  no  fault  to 
be  found  with  the  temperance  principles  of  this 
town,  but  temperance  people  and  temperance  re- 
forms have  no  influence  there.  There  is  neither  a 
local  option  nor  a  prohibition  list  of  voters.  It  is 
impossible  to  arouse  any  interest  in  temperance,  be- 
cause the  policies  of  the  temperance  movement  have 
been  so  purely  negative.  Their  success  has  been 
self-effacing.  No  sooner  are  they  enacted  and  ob- 
served than  their  influence  is  erased.  This  town, 
however,  is  far  from  being  a  good  town.  The  stand- 
ards are  low.     The  one  church  in  the  town  is  weak. 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  83 

though  the  people  are  religious.  There  are  about 
forty  votes  for  sale  in  every  election  and  these 
voters  who  are  for  sale  determine  the  character  of 
the  town.  Leading  citizens  condone  the  sale  of 
votes  as  a  necessary  evil.  Moreover,  there  is  a 
certain  number  of  young  men  and  women  in  the 
town  who  are  immoral.  Year  by  year  the  presence 
of  this  fixed  measure  of  immorality  testifies  to  the 
existence  of  causes  of  wrong-doing.  There  is  no 
organization  of  the  town  for  moral  training. 
Among  certain  people  low  standards  prevail  and 
nobody  is  attempting  to  raise  their  standards.  It 
was  not  enough,  therefore,  for  the  moral  better- 
ment of  this  town,  to  expel  the  saloon.  There  must 
be  brought  in  something  as  powerful  for  good  as 
the  saloon  was  for  evil.  It  is  within  the  power  of 
the  country  Church  to  organize  the  people  for  well- 
doing just  as  much  as  it  was  in  her  power  to  organ- 
ize them  against  ill-doing. 

Enlistment  of  Recreation.  The  organizations  to 
accomplish  this  end  will  be  recreative.  Not  that 
these  are  the  only  constructive  moral  methods. 
Universal  education  has  done  a  great  service  for 
public  morality.  One  does  not  need  to  write  books 
now  urging  the  Church  to  support  the  common 
schools.  I  will  not  be  understood,  therefore,  as 
urging  anything  except  that  which  can  now  be  effi- 
ciently added  by  the  Church  to  the  moral  culture 
of  the  people.  The  business  of  the  Church  is  to 
promote  that  which  being  added  can  accomplish  the 
greatest  good. 


84  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Its  Moral  Worth  Demonstrated.  The  experience 
of  recent  years  has  shown  that  organized  play  has 
moral,  constructive  power.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  similar  bodies  have 
used  gymnasiums  and  playgrounds  for  the  develop- 
ment of  physical  life,  and  have  discovered  that  un- 
wittingly ethical  service  has  been  done  to  those 
whose  bodies  they  thought  to  improve.  At  first 
Associations  put  the  entrance  to  the  gymnasium 
near  the  entrance  to  the  prayer-meeting,  believing 
that  the  prayer-meeting  alone  could  justify  the 
gymnasium.  Now  they  see  that  the  gymnasium  has 
values  of  its  own,  and  the  best  of  these  values  are 
the  moral  gains  attained  by  those  who  take  part 
in  the  organized  play  of  the  Association. 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association.  The 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  has  with 
even  finer  appreciation  used  recreation  for  the  build- 
ing of  character.  They  have  discovered  in  open- 
air  games,  and  in  the  associations  of  club  life  for 
girls,  in  the  gymnasium  and  in  that  greatest  essen- 
tial of  all,  the  constant  friendly  association  of 
young  persons,  that  moral  character  is  strengthened 
and  the  individual  is  sustained  by  standards  arising 
from  intercourse,  from  spontaneous  action,  and 
from  fellowship. 

Recent  Extension  of  Play.  Settlement  workers 
too  have  experimented  in  the  play  exercises  among 
the  children  of  the  poor.  Most  of  these  workers 
are  sons  and  daughters  of  the  churches.  They 
enter  their  service  in  a  religious  spirit.    They  have 


^ 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  85 

come  to  believe  that  play  has  power  to  build  up  con- 
science and  character.  Of  course  this  building  up 
is  in  the  littles  of  small  brick  and  mortar,  but  the 
best  constructions  in  character  are  made  of  the  in- 
finitely small.  The  worst  undermining  of  character 
is  in  the  details  of  daily  conduct.  Dr.  Luther  H. 
Gulick  is  perhaps  the  highest  authority  among  re- 
ligious and  educational  and  humanitarian  people 
upon  this  subject,  and  he  teaches  that  play,  because 
of  its  highly  voluntary  character,  trains  men  in  a 
better  morality  than  does  work. 

Pioneer  Era  Without  Play.  The  story  of  play 
and  of  morality  is  interwoven  with  the  develop- 
ment of  life  in  the  open  country.  In  the  pioneer 
period  of  American  farming  morality  showed  the 
vices  and  virtues  of  independence.  Pioneers  are 
lonely  people  and  they  have  no  social  virtues.  They 
should  not  be  expected  to  have  them.  Men  cannot 
live  through  the  days  of  a  year  alone,  and  then 
practise  when  called  on  the  virtues  of  close  social 
life.  The  churches  of  the  pioneer  period  inculcate 
the  virtues  of  independence.  The  great  transac- 
tion is  to  them  the  salvation  of  the  individual  soul, 
and  they  teach  that  other  moral  processes  are  prob- 
ably' sinful.  Amusements  in  this  period  were  few. 
Among  the  mountaineers  in  the  South  to-day  there 
is  no  play.  Even  the  children  are  solitary.  Team- 
work outside  of  the  town  is  unknown.  They  who 
attend  meetings  for  amusement  are  rebuked  for  it. 
The  recreations  of  pioneers  and  mountaineers  are 
deeds  not  of  team-work,  but  of  personal  prowess. 


86  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

The  great  men  of  the  time  before  Lincoln  did  deeds 
of  prowess  with  the  gun  and  the  ax.  They  wrestled, 
they  ran,  but  they  did  not  play  in  any  organized 
form. 

Pioneer  Sins  and  Vices.  The  pioneer  period,  as 
it  was  individualist,  showed  the  vices  of  an  unor- 
ganized society.  Acts  of  men  were  condemned  by 
the  early  churches  which  were  impulsive  rather 
than  deliberate.  Many  were  the  adulteries,  thefts, 
and  breaches  of  contract  of  those  days,  but  in  the 
most  of  cases  they  expressed  independence  of  spirit. 
The  sins  of  later  times  expressed  a  cooperation  in 
wrong-doing.  The  religious  worker  among  pioneer 
or  mountain  people  must  deal  with  them  in  sym- 
pathy. He  must  recognize  the  splendid  independ- 
ence of  character  of  which  they  are  capable  and 
teach  them  the  nobility  of  the  solitary  life  of  the 
mountain. 

Only  Safe  Method  of  Change.  In  pioneer 
churches,  also,  the  moral  problem  is  very  largely 
one  of  adaptation.  The  largest  section  of  pioneer 
life  is  in  the  Southern  mountains  and  on  the  West- 
ern frontier.  But  the  pioneer  period  is  yielding 
to  the  invasion  of  modern  industry.  In  all  these 
places  the  Church  must  help  the  people  to  enter  the 
new  era.  This  can  be  done  best  through  the  young. 
But  the  fundamental  method  of  teaching  it  must 
be  economic.  The  great  struggle  of  a  people  to 
whom  the  railroad  has  come  and  who  are  solicited 
to  work  in  mills  is  to  get  a  living.  For  instance,  in 
Huntsville,  Alabama,  are  some  thousands  of  moun- 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  87 

taineers  who  have  been  brought  to  the  city  to  work 
in  the  cotton  mills.  They  are  country  people,  liv- 
ing in  "  company  houses."  Out  of  the  loneliness  of 
mountain  cabins  they  come  to  be  crowded  into  con- 
gested, slumlike  villages.  Observers  testify  that 
the  general  tendency  of  factory  labor  upon  these 
mountain  people  is  good  on  one  condition;  namely,, 
that  they  have  religious  leadership  in  the  transition 
from  the  mountain  to  the  city.  If  they  have  settle- 
ment workers  going  among  them  to  help  those  who 
fall,  if  there  be  a  friendly  visitor  or  district  nurse 
at  hand  to  care  for  the  sick  or  for  those  who  are 
injured  in  the  mill,  then  the  new  industrial  period 
will  be  a  blessing.  The  mill  itself,  with  its  better 
wages  and  its  steady  employment,  is  one  vast  school 
for  the  mountaineer,  but  without  the  blessing  of 
religious  and  voluntary  Christian  service  among 
them,  the  mountain  people  will  get  no  benefit.  This 
is  the  testimony  of  mill  owners,  settlement  workers, 
philanthropists,  and  Christian  ministers. 

Twofold  Christian  Work.  The  service,  therefore, 
which  Christian  people  can  render  is  both  in  main- 
taining the  pioneer  type  of  men  and  of  community, 
and  in  helping  these  communities  to  enter  into  the 
organized  life  which  comes  upon  them  with  rail- 
roads, factories,  and  organized  farming. 

Household  Moral  Standard.  The  household 
period  of  farming  has  its  moral  system  grouped 
around  the  household  unit.  As  the  individual  was 
the  unit  in  the  farmer  period  with  independence 
of  character  as  the  clue  to  all  virtues,  so  here  the 


88  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

household  is  the  unit.  The  virtues  of  the  working 
household,  earning  its  living  from  its  own  soil,  are 
the  virtues  of  this  time.  There  was  no  play  in  the 
pioneer  period,  but  the  beginnings  of  recreative  life 
came  with  the  warmer  and  more  social,  neighborly 
intercourse  of  household  farming.  The  austere 
ideas  of  this  period,  however,  treated  recreative 
enterprises  with  severity.  The  early  churches  for- 
bade their  members  "  to  go  to  frolics."  The  surest 
way  to  signify  that  play  was  moral  was  to  declare 
it  immoral  and  to  forbid  it.  President  Henry  C. 
King  says  that  many  parents  express  their  brief 
philosophy  of  childhood  in  one  word,  "  Don't."  In 
the  same  way  the  austerity  of  this  time  troubled 
itself  but  little  with  the  discovery  of  possible  good, 
and  too  easily  condemned  all  spontaneous  recreative 
enterprises  by  calling  them  evil  and  forbidding  them. 
Narrow  Outlook.  The  household  farmer  is  so 
devoted  to  his  own  group  and  its  experiences  that 
he  approves  of  what  is  within  and  disapproves  of 
most  things  without.  He  looks  upon  all  other 
groups  of  people  with  a  certain  reserve,  almost  an 
aversion.  He  favors  the  members  of  his  own 
household  and  prefers  them  to  all  others.  The 
curve  of  his  approval  and  appreciation  falls  very 
rapidly  at  the  outer  boundaries  of  his  home  and 
his  farm.  He  does  not  recognize  obligations  in 
extensive  detail  outside  of  his  own  farm.  He 
thinks  of  his  neighbor  farmers  as  his  competitors, 
not  his  comrades  in  a  cooperative  enterprise.  But 
the  household  farmer  has  not  matured  his  system 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  89 

of  tilling  the  land  sufficiently  to  appreciate  that 
his  success  is  dependent  on  his  neighbor's  success. 
This  competitive  and  divisive  condition  of  farm- 
ing is  the  source  of  many  moral  conditions  in  the 
country  v^hich  are  evil.  It  is  the  source,  too,  of 
much  of  the  waste  of  country  life. 

Strange  Moral  Bias.  The  prevalence  of  this 
competitive  state  of  mind  in  the  country  and  its 
profound  influences  are  amazing.  One  sees  men 
who  are  pillars  of  the  churches  working  for  their 
own  families  and  giving  nothing  for  the  interests 
of  the  community.  It  is  a  shocking  moral  experi- 
ence to  observe  deacons  and  other  spiritual  leaders 
of  country  communities  using  the  public  school  sys- 
tem for  private  profit  and  thinking  no  ill  of  it. 
They  have  no  sense  of  the  community,  because  they 
have  never  cooperated  in  the  essentials  with  their 
neighbors.  Therefore,  they  see  no  wrong  in  using 
the  public  school  as  a  source  of  income  for  a  mem- 
ber of  their  family.  They  would  not  tamper  with 
school  funds,  but  they  will  solicit  the  appointment 
of  a  daughter  as  a  teacher  solely  because  she  is  a 
member  of  their  family.  There  are  many  farmers 
in  the  country  who  could  be  trusted  with  your  prop- 
erty or  with  your  child.  You  would  make  no  mis- 
take if  you  appointed  such  a  man  executor  of  your 
will,  but  beware  of  putting  him  as  the  trustee  of  a 
public  fund  which  is  for  the  interest  of  the  com- 
munity. These  men  have  a  sense  of  family  life,  but 
as  to  public  trust,  they  have  it  not. 

Religious  Inconsistency.     The  evil  to  be  cured 


90  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

is  the  evil  which  expresses  itself  in  packing  the 
^ood  apples  at  the  top  and  the  poor  ones  in  the 
middle  of  the  barrel.  It  is  the  evil  of  refusal  to 
recognize  social  standards,  on  which  alone  cities 
can  be  built,  by  which  alone  the  world  market  can  be 
organized.  In  a  church  in  New  York  State  is  a 
prominent  and  excellent  citizen,  approved  by  his 
neighbors.  The  milk  from  his  dairy  farm  by 
which  he  gets  his  living  was  refused  by  the  health 
officers  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  and  he  was  in- 
formed of  the  reasons  for  the  disapproval.  His 
standards  of  social  conduct  were  so  low  that  in- 
stead of  improving  the  sanitary  quality  of  his  milk, 
he  turned  his  back  on  Rochester  and,  driving  in  the 
opposite  direction,  sent  his  milk  to  Buffalo,  where 
he  could  sell  it  at  a  little  more  pains  and  at  some- 
what less  profit.  This  religious  man,  uninstructed 
in  the  social  standards  by  which  a  countryman 
serves  unseen  customers  in  a  great  city,  then  boasted 
of  his  evading  the  sanitary  restrictions  of  Rochester. 
Indifference  to  Results  Out  of  Sight.  A  pastor 
found  a  boarding-place  in  the  country  for  a  mother 
with  a  very  sick  child.  The  farmer  when  he  saw  the 
pitiful  condition  of  the  little  baby  promptly  offered 
his  sympathetic  help  to  the  mother  in  restoring  it 
to  health.  Believing,  as  other  farmers  did,  that  the 
milk  produced  by  cattle  fed  on  green  corn  is  bad  for 
little  children,  he  offered  to  set  aside  one  cow 
from  his  herd  and  feed  that  cow  on  grass  alone,  be- 
cause the  herd  at  that  time  was  feeding  on  green 
corn.      The   little   child  very  promptly   recovered 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  91 

abundant  health.  Yet  all  the  time  this  farmer  was 
sending  his  milk  produced  by  the  cows  fed  on  green 
corn  to  the  city  for  sale,  while  knowing  that  it 
would  be  used  by  children  and  believing  that  chil- 
dren so  nourished  would  grow  sick  and  die.  The 
child  seen  impressed  his  mind,  but  the  children  un- 
seen had  no  influence  upon  his  conduct.  The  need 
in  this  case  is  of  cultivation  in  social  standards. 
Household  farming  produced  no  community  stand- 
ards of  action. 

Need  of  Frequent  Happy  Meetings.  Sometimes 
the  people  of  a  given  neighborhood  have  no  ex- 
perience of  a  common  interest  which  unites  a  whole 
community.  Probably  for  most  of  them  the  moral 
standards  of  organized  and  scientific  farming  will 
never  come.  One  cannot  always  hope  to  teach 
grown  people  the  lessons  which  they  did  not  learn 
as  children.  The  business  of  the  Church,  there- 
fore, is  to  organize  the  young  children,  and  train 
them  in  the  reactions  and  instinctive  responses  of  a 
new  mode  of  life.  This  can  be  done  by  all  forms 
of  recreative  and  social  life,  especially  if  they  are 
organized  for  a  high  purpose.  Professor  Carver 
has  rightly  insisted  that  recreative  life  in  the  coun- 
try does  not  need  to  be  musical  or  dramatic  or  gym- 
nastic, or  any  other  one  prescribed  thing,  but  the 
essential  is  that  it  result  in  frequent  and  happy 
social  meetings. 

Trials  of  Transition.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  Church  has  not  the  whole  task.  Every 
agency  of  modern  life  is  cooperating  to  undermine 


92  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  standards  of  the  household  era,  or  rather  to 
enlarge  them,  through  a  period  of  speculation,  to 
the  standards  of  organized  and  scientific  agricul- 
ture. The  Christian  worker  who  is  earnest  for  the 
enlargement  of  the  mind  of  country  people  must 
recognize  through  what  bitter  experiences  the  farm 
household  has  gone,  when  so  many  farmers  have 
sold  the  land  on  which  their  ancestors  were  buried ; 
how  mighty  the  emotional  change  has  been  in  the 
past  twenty  years  when  men  have  given  up  the 
homesteads  for  which  their  fathers  and  grand- 
fathers labored  and  even  fought,  and  in  which  the 
whole  round  of  their  life  has  been  passed. 

Reconstructive  Opportunity.  "  A  period  of  re- 
construction is  a  religious  opportunity,"  says  one 
of  our  great  missionaries.  This  profound  social 
experience  of  change  makes  possible  the  teaching 
of  new  moral  standards  in  the  country.  The  dis- 
solution of  the  household  group  leaves  individuals 
separated,  confused,  often  depressed  by  the  new 
period,  and  unable  to  act  by  the  old  standards;  un- 
able to  learn  what  are  the  new.  I  am  confident  that 
the  business  of  the  Church  at  this  time  is  not  only 
to  preach  new  moral  standards,  but  to  organize  the 
people  on  the  principles  of  the  new  economy.  In- 
deed, this  process  of  organizing  country  people 
is  going  on.  The  cooperative  spirit  is  abroad  and 
is  doing  its  work.  The  need  is  that  the  churches 
should  have  a  part  of  this  spirit,  and  give  the  sanc- 
tion of  religious  authority,  persuasion,  and  interpre- 
tation to  the  new  time.    The  minister  should  speak 


MAKING  A   COMMUNITY  PARK 
SCHOOLS  WERE  CLOSED  AND  EVERYBODY  TURNED  OUT  TO  HELP 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  93 

with  a  sure  voice  and  the  people  in  the  country 
should  enter  heartily  into  every  cooperative  enter- 
prise that  will  build  up  the  country  community. 
This  ought  to  be  done  confessedly  and  frankly  in 
the  name  of  Christ.  The  religious  spirit  must  be 
poured  into  the  new  unions  of  country  people.  It 
will  guide  them  to  better  efficiency  and  it  will 
lift  them  from  the  baser  and  more  material  ends 
to  which  they  will  naturally  gravitate. 

Place  for  New  Ideals./  Christianity  makes  ideals, 
and  country  life  at  this  time  needs  the  ideals  of  a 
new  era.  The  leaven  of  Christianity  has  power  to 
idealize,  to  dramatize  life,  and  the  churches  should 
train  men  in  the  part  which  they  are  to  play  in  the 
period  of  organized  and  scientific  farming. 

Farm  Trafficking  in  the  Middle  West.  Specula- 
tive agriculture  characterizes  the  present  day.  We 
are  in  the  midst  of  a  period  of  exploiting  farm  land. 
Cash  and  money  values  seem  to  be  the  curse  of 
country  life.  Eastern  farmers  are  amazed  at  the 
selling  and  reselling  and  selling  again  of  the  farms 
in  the  Middle  West.  There  is  far  more  tenacity 
of  ownership  still  in  the  East,  where  some  farms 
are  permanently  abandoned,  than  in  the  Middle 
West,  where  every  acre  is  eagerly  sought;  for  this 
speculative  selling  and  buying  has  had  but  little 
check  there,  and  the  community  has  greatly  suffered. 

Moral  Gains  even  of  Farm  Speculation.  But  the 
period  of  exploiting  the  farm  has  its  own  moral 
standards.  Country  life  has  not  known  the  values 
of  cash,  and  country  people  have  been  slow  to  learn 


94  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  obhgations  which  are  expressed  in  terms  of 
money.  Farmers  who  had  agreed  to  sell  at  a  cer- 
tain figure  have  too  often  broken  their  word  when 
they  thought  a  better  price  could  be  obtained  by  so 
doing.  Few  farming  communities  show  the  high 
principle  in  matters  of  money  which  characterizes 
the  Wall  Street  broker  and  the  banker,  whose  stand- 
ards in  other  things  are  by  farmers  much  con- 
demned. The  banker  and  the  broker  know  the 
obligations  of  money.  They  live  in  the  terms  of 
cash,  and  they  keep  their  word.  The  virtues  of  a 
speculative  period  are  virtues  which  the  farmer 
needs  to  learn.  This  period  is  not  mere  destruction 
to  the  community.  It  is  described  by  Professor 
Ross  as  "  the  period  of  redistribution  of  land 
values."  Professor  Carver  says,  "  The  American 
farm  lands  are  passing  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  will  till  them  to  the  best  advantage."  There 
are  rights  and  wrongs  even  in  a  speculative  period. 
Virile  Teaching  on  Giving.  How  shall  the 
Church  raise  the  standard  of  morality  in  a  time  of 
speculation?  The  great  business  of  the  Church  in 
this  time  is  to  exalt  the  doctrine  of  consecration  of 
money.  Like  other  moral  standards  it  comes  more 
by  experience  than  by  precept.  Sermons  and  teach- 
ings will  affect  it,  but  the  doing  of  deeds  by  people 
themselves  means  more  than  sermons  spoken  to 
them  or  lessons  drawn  for  them  by  word  of  mouth. 
The  country  Church  should  teach  its  people  to  give. 
The  organization  of  the  work  of  the  Church  on  a 
basis  of  giving  will  have  a  profound  and  far-reach- 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  95 

ing  influence.  "  Pay  to  the  Lord  what  you  owe  " 
is  a  gospel  needed  in  the  country  community.  This 
doctrine  must  be  taught  in  a  virile  and  not  in  a 
merely  persuasive  manner.  The  Church  must  be 
supported,  not  by  the  condescending  benevolence 
of  a  few,  but  by  the  consecrated  dues  of  the  many. 

Recreations  Worth  their  Cost.  The  Church 
among  working  people,  who  have  little  money,  must 
solve  the  questions  of  paid  entertainments.  Recrea- 
tions should  not  be  paid  for  out  of  the  collection 
plate.  People  are  willing  to  pay  for  them.  Their 
value  in  assembling  the  whole  community  is  very 
great. 

Three  Principles.  I  suggest  therefore  three  prin- 
ciples by  which  they  be  governed.  First,  enter- 
tainments should  pay  for  themselves.  All  clubs  or 
societies  in  a  church  should  pay  as  they  go.  Sec- 
ond, they  should  not  be  used  as  a  source  of  income 
for  the  church.  Worship  must  not  exploit  recrea- 
tion. The  minister  must  not  get  his  salary  from 
oyster  suppers  or  private  theatricals,  for  if  these 
things  are  used  for  church  support  they  will  become 
baser  and  poorer  in  quality.  Third,  paid  enter- 
tainments should  be  in  another  room  than  that  used 
for  worship,  if  it  is  possible.  These  three  principles 
may  be  condensed  into  one:  that  worship  and 
recreation  are  separate  enterprises  of  the  Church. 
Each  must  be  managed  in  its  own  times,  and  for 
its  own  values. 

Frank,  Definite  Action.  There  can  be  no  build- 
ing up  of  moral  character  in  the  country  till  minis- 


g6  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ters  and  church  people  are  earnest  and  businesslike. 
There  must  be  frank,  definite,  virile  action.  Its 
basis  must  be  clear-cut  and  its  administration  reso- 
lute. The  Church  which  has  positive  ideas  as  to 
the  Lord's  ownership  and  the  sacredness  of  all 
money  obligations  will  do  much  to  build  up  the 
country  community,  and  it  will  be  found  that  this 
Church  has  built  the  moral  character  of  its  people. 

Church  Social  Leadership  Desirable.  The  high- 
est moral  values  will  not  be  attained  unless  this 
social  opportunity  be  given  by  the  Church.  It  is 
of  the  greatest  ethical  importance  that  religion  be 
the  center  of  the -moral  life.  There  is  no  other  or- 
ganizing power  so  strong  and  no  other  has  such 
immediate  appeal.  Whatever  city  people  may  do, 
country  folk  expect  the  Church  to  train  the  con- 
science. The  mere  gathering  of  people  at  a  church 
tends  to  remind  them  of  every  moral  principle  and 
to  awaken  every  ennobling  association.  The  stand- 
ards of  Christianity  are  the  highest  moral  standards, 
so  that  it  is  all-important  that  the  Church  be  the 
leader  in  the  moral  culture  of  the  community.  In 
our  day  it  is  most  generally  to  be  done  by  definite 
organizations  for  building  up  the  social  life  of  the 
country. 

Summary.  To  sum  up  this  chapter,  then,  the 
problem  of  morality  is  intimately  related  in  the 
country  community  with  the  play  experience  of  the 
people.  The  one  reflects  the  form  of  the  other. 
Amusements  in  the  country  are  often  immoral. 
Recreation  may  be  made  in  the  highest  degree  a 


Rural  Morality  and  Recreation  97 

moral  power.  The  organized  industries  all  react 
upon  their  workers  in  a  craving  for  organized  play. 
This  play  is  the  voluntary  expression  of  those  whose 
work  is  in  little  details  involuntary.  Therefore, 
play  is  highly  moral.  It  is  the  expression  of  the 
spontaneous,  voluntary,  personal  impulses.  The 
pioneer  period  had  the  vices  of  an  independent  peo- 
ple. Those  who  would  train  solitary  farming 
people  must  at  once  respect  their  independent  char- 
acter: transform  them  so  far  as  is  possible  by  the 
infusion  of  social  spirit;  but  all  the  time  the  soli- 
tary and  independent  character  must  be  treated  in 
its  own  terms.  Household  farming  should  pro- 
duce family  virtues,  yet  the  virtues  of  the  household 
period  of  farming  are  disappearing  before  the  era 
of  speculative  and  scientific  farming,  to  which  these 
virtues  are  inadequate.  The  children  of  the  house- 
hold farming  era  need  to  be  trained  in  the  organ- 
ized and  cooperative  virtues  of  more  mature  agri- 
culture. Country  people  need  to  be  trained  in  the 
giving  of  money.  The  ethical  standards  of  a  finan- 
cial life  need  cultivation  among  country  people,  be- 
cause at  the  present  time  we  are  in  the  period  of 
speculative  farming,  when  values  are  expressed  in 
money  and  obligations  are  those  in  which  the  Chris- 
tian banker  is  the  ideal  type.  Last  of  all,  the  virtues 
of  cooperation  are  the  highest,  and  the  vices  of  com- 
petition are  the  worst,  which  at  the  present  time 
we  must  recognize.  The  great  business  of  the  re- 
ligious and  moral  leader  in  the  country  is  to  train 
men  in  cooperative  life. 


COOPERATION  AND  FEDERATION 


The  Country  Life  movement  deals  with  what  is  probably  the  most 
important  problem  before  the  English-speaking  peoples  at  this  time. 
Now  the  predominance  of  the  towns,  which  is  depressing  the  country, 
is  based  partly  on  a  fuller  application  of  modern  physical  science, 
partly  on  superior  business  organization,  partly  on  facilities  for  occu- 
pation and  amusement;  and  if  the  balance  is  to  be  redressed,  the 
country  must  be  improved  in  all  three  ways.  There  must  be  better 
farming,  better  business,  and  better  living.  These  three  are  equally 
necessary,  but  better  business  must  come  first.  For  farmers,  the 
way  to  better  living  is  cooperation,  and  what  cooperation  means  is 
the   chief  thing  the  American  farmer   has   to  learn. — Horace  Plunkett 

Very  much  has  been  said  about  the  necessity  of  business  cooperation 
among  farmers,  and  the  importance  of  the  subject  can  hardly  be 
overstated;  and  yet  it  should  be  understood  that  economic  cooperation 
is  only  one  of  many  means  that  may  be  put  in  operation  to  propel 
country  life.  The  essential  thing  is  that  country  life  be  organized: 
if  the  organization  is  cooperative,  the  results — at  least  theoretically — 
should  be  the  best;  but  in  one  place,  the  most  needed  cooperation 
may  be  social,  in  another  place  educational,  in  another  religious,  in 
another  political,  in  another  sanitary,  in  another  economic  in  respect 
to  buying  and  selling  and  making  loans  or  providing  insurance.  When 
the  chief  deficiency  in  any  region  is  economic,  then  it  should  be  met 
by  an  organization  that  is  primarily  economic. — L,  H.  Bailey 

In  the  little  town  of  Victor,  Montana,  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  and 
Methodists  have  not  progressed  quite  far  enough  in  Christian  unity 
to  feel  that  they  can  belong  to  one  church,  but  they  are  far  enough 
along  to  live  and  work  as  one  church.  So  they  have  taken  one  of 
their  local  houses  of  worship  for  preaching  services  and  the  other 
for  Sunday-school.  They  have  Presbyterian  preaching  two  Sundays 
in  the  month,  and  Baptist  and  Methodist  preaching  one  Sunday  each. 
But  their  Sabbath-school  and  their  Christian  Endeavor  Society  run 
on  week  after  week  as  united  bodies,  without  denominational  dis- 
tinctions. A  Sunday-school  of  150  they  find  a  great  deal  more  spir- 
ited and  a  great  deal  more  effective  than  would  be  three  Sunday- 
schools  of  fifty  each.  And  the  same  consideration  in  their  opinion 
amply  justifies  the  joint  young  people's  work.  This  victory  of  Victor 
over  denominational  rivalries  should  be  more  than  suggestive — it  should 
be  strongly  incitative — to  other  over-churched  villages. — The  Continent 


100 


V 

COOPERATION  AND  FEDERATION 

Occasional  United  Effort.  Cooperation  may  be 
occasional  among  people  who  are  indisposed  to  it, 
or  it  may  be  social  among  those  who  are  accus- 
tomed, with  reserve,  to  act  together,  or  it  may  be 
fundamental  and  continuous  among  country  people 
who  depend  upon  it  for  their  livelihood.  Solitary 
farming  was  uncooperative.  Only  occasional  acts 
in  emergencies  were  cooperative.  Pioneer  and 
settler  folk  did  not  enlist  in  armies,  except  under 
terrifying  emergencies.  They  did  not  gather  for 
common  work,  except  as  the  exigencies  of  pioneer 
life  required  them,  for  a  barn-building  or  a  house- 
raising.  They  had  no  settled  or  regulated  or  re- 
quired cooperation.  Yet  there  was  in  this  period 
at  times  a  more  fundamental  cooperation,  because 
it  was  an  effort  to  secure  necessities  of  life.  The 
life  of  pioneer  days  is  centrifugal.  It  goes  off  into 
the  wilderness  and  retreats  toward  the  center  only 
when  driven  in. 

Unfederated  Religious  Stage.  The  religious  life 
of  solitary  farmers  was  equally  innocent  of  federa- 
tion. They  believed  with  all  their  hearts  in  division. 
The  people  of  this  type  in  the  country  to-day  believe 


I02        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

that  the  virtuous  state  is  that  in  which  the  few 
righteous  are  separate  from  the  many.  To  them  the 
activities  of  the  church  which  represents  the  whole 
community  are  presumably  worldly.  Social  unity 
means  worldliness,  but  the  separation  of  a  small 
group  gives  them  a  consciousness  of  piety. 

Strong  Stress  on  the  Individual.  This  unco- 
operative religious  life  idealizes  the  individual. 
God  is  known  to  be  a  person,  but  they  think  that  he 
is  not  served  in  a  society.  How  different  is  this  ideal 
from  the  modern  growing  conception  of  the  com- 
munity devoted  to  God !  How  unlike  is  the  pioneer 
ideal  of  solitary  living,  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
wilderness  and  the  prairie,  to  the  present  social  con- 
ception of  the  service  to  God  in  the  service  to  a 
community  or  to  a  society ! 

Extreme  Individual  Views.  This  doctrine  of  re- 
ligious individualism  can-  be  carried  to  terrifying 
and  tragic  ends.  There  have  been  lonely  Elijahs  in 
America  who  believed  that  they  alone  were  left  of 
all  God's  prophets.  I  am  not  concerned  in  this 
chapter  to  note  the  moral  values  of  this  independ- 
ence. These  moral  values  are  very  great.  But  in 
the  present  time  the  independent  and  solitary  con- 
ception of  God  is  too  often  a  source  of  weakness 
in  the  community  and  of  unreligion  in  the  Church. 

Cooperation  for  Social  Ends.  In  the  period  of 
household  farming  cooperation  in  the  getting  of  a 
livelihood  was  only  occasional.  Household  farm- 
ing still  prevails  over  most  of  the  United  States, 
unsettled   and   weakened  by  speculation  as   it  is. 


Cooperation  and  Federation  103 

and  cooperation  among  household  farmers  is  purely 
social.  It  is  not  economic.  They  visit,  they  dine, 
they  go  to  common  places  of  meeting,  they  inter- 
marry. The  social  processes  of  the  country  are  co- 
operative, but  the  weakness  of  purely  social  co- 
operation is  shown  in  the  inability  of  household 
farmers  to  resist  the  speculative  process  that  is  now 
undermining  the  social  economy  of  the  household 
farmer. 

Economic  Cooperation  also  Essential.  Only 
those  farmers  are  able  to  resist  the  dissolving  acid 
of  speculation  who  cooperate  economically.  Those 
farmers  are,  speaking  broadly,  in  three  classes.  The 
first  class  is  illustrated  in  the  Mormons  in  the  West, 
who  cooperate  in  getting  their  livelihood  under  the 
organizing  power  of  their  churches.  Secondly,  the 
Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians,  who  co- 
operate in  the  building  of  their  communities,  and 
in  a  larger  measure  in  their  economic  life,  than 
other  farmers  do,  and  third,  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans, a  name  which  is  applied  to  a  group  of  re- 
ligious bodies  who  cooperate  in  their  social  and  their 
economic  life.  With  them  belong  other  Teutonic 
populations  living  in  the  open  country.  The  suc- 
cess of  these  farmers  in  resisting  the  process  of 
speculation,  in  holding  their  land,  in  keeping  up 
their  communities  and  maintaining  their  country 
churches,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  make  com- 
mon interest  of  getting  a  living.  They  stand  by 
one  another  in  economic  efforts.  This  thoroughness 
of  cooperation  is,  according  to  Sir  Horace  Plunkett, 


I04  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 
essential  to  the  welfare  of  rural  life.  In  his  book,^ 
Sir  Horace  insists  that  merely  religious  or  social 
organization  is  not  sufficient  in  the  country,  but 
cooperation  must  be  economic,  if  it  is  to  maintain 
communities  and  build  up  a  permanent  population. 
The  close  dependence  of  religious  institutions  upon 
economic  processes  is  shown  by  the  survival  of  the 
churches  among  those  farmers  who  cooperate  in 
their  business,  and  the  weakening  of  the  churches 
among  those  farmers  who  do  not.  The  economic 
experience  of  the  people  is  matched  in  their  re- 
ligious experience.  For  every  economic  process  one 
may  expect  to  find  a  religious  effect.  For  this 
reason  the  farmers  of  the  household  type  of  farm- 
ing, who  cooperate  only  in  the  genial  and  pleasant 
and  kindly  things  of  life,  but  who  compete  in  the 
serious  and  stern  task  of  getting  a  living,  have  done 
nothing  to  resist  the  process  of  speculation,  and 
their  churches  have  been  undermined  by  the  dis- 
solution of  their  communities. 

Example  of  Oberlin.  The  historic  experience  of 
John  Frederic  Oberlin  in  Waldersbach  is  an  illus- 
tration of  this  thorough  cooperation  of  the  whole 
community.  Oberlin  came  to  these  people  when 
their  community  in  the  mountains  of  the  Vosges 
was  poor,  distracted,  and  discouraged.  His  prede- 
cessors had  preached  and  taught  in  the  schools,  but 
Oberlin  saw  that  he  must  build  up  the  community 
from  the  bottom.  He  began,  therefore,  by  summon- 
ing his  neighbors  to  the  task  of  road  building. 

*  The  Rural  Life  Problem  in  the  United  States. 


JOHN  FREDERIC  OBERLIX 


Cooperation  and  Federation  105 

Against  their  amazed  protest  he  laid  the  stones 
with  his  own  hands  and  demonstrated  that  as  a 
student  of  engineering  he  could  serve  their  common 
needs.  He  promoted  better  agriculture.  He  under- 
took the  general  economic  welfare  of  the  commu- 
nity as  a  whole.  His  life  ^  is  a  classic  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  country  Church. 

Requires  Care  of  the  Poor.  One  of  the  most 
essential  forms  of  economic  cooperation  among 
country  people  is  the  care  of  the  poor  in  the  coun- 
try community.  It  is  a  part  of  the  cooperation  in 
getting  a  living  which  tends  to  build  the  community 
and  to  steady  the  country  Church.  Where  the  poor 
have  been  neglected  and  the  stupid  have  been  ig- 
nored the  community  has  given  its  energies  forth 
in  the  lives  of  the  brilliant  and  the  rich  and  saintly 
people.  There  the  country  Church  has  been  mis- 
directed, and  the  community  has  been  dissolved, 
because  the  poor  have  degenerated  and  the  stupid 
have  become  more  ignorant.  People  of  common- 
place religious  character  have  retrograded  and 
have  remained  in  the  locality,  but  the  brilliant  and 
the  rich  and  the  saintly  have  very  generally  gone 
off,  leaving  the  community  bereft  of  leaders  and 
sinking  in  its  own  degenerate  leavings. 

Pennsylvania  German  Cooperation.  The  Penn- 
sylvania Germans  have  built  many  communities. 
They  have  not  practised  in  their  permanent  com- 
munities the  intensity  and  the  violence  of  coopera- 
tive life  which  distinguished  them  in  the  cloister  of 

*  A.  F.  Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin. 


io6        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Ephrata.  In  this  university  about  1730  they  initi- 
ated an  experiment  in  cooperation  and  for  nearly 
thirty  years  under  the  leadership  of  Conrad  Beissel 
they  blended  all  the  interests  of  a  group  of  people 
in  one  intense  glorious  effort  at  communism.  This 
effort  failed,  and  the  community  reverted  from 
its  intense  unity  to  the  ordinary  free  cooperation 
which  prevails  among  the  Mennonite,  Dunker, 
Amish,  and  other  kindred  sects.  But  the  history 
of  Ephrata  has  remained  the  precious  tradition 
both  of  their  children  and  of  the  Pennsylvania 
people  generally  and  of  all  readers  of  American 
history.  Its  central  principle  was  religious.  It  il- 
lustrates this  fact:  that  religious  life  idealizes  the 
labor  of  poor  people  for  a  living;  that  country 
people  and  working  people  may  find  in  the  religious 
passion  the  power  which  will  unite  them  for  eco- 
nomic cooperation,  and  if  that  cooperation  be  not 
so  intense  or  so  passionate,  the  fervor  and  the  en- 
thusiasm necessary  will  be  supplied  by  religious 
experience.  The  Pennsylvania  Germans  who  sup- 
ply the  market  around  many  Pennsylvania  towns 
cooperate  to-day  quite  effectively,  though  more 
freely,  in  their  agriculture. 

Church  Registers  Measure  of  Cooperation.  The 
measure  of  the  cooperative  spirit  in  any  population 
is  expressed  in  the  churches.  The  life  of  the 
pioneers  showed  itself  in  their  many  churches. 
They  believed  in  independent  religious  organiza- 
tions. We  idealize  federation.  They  built  in  com- 
petition.    The  churches  of  the  household  period 


Cooperation  and  Federation  107 

were  divided,  because  the  household  farmer  per- 
fects his  own  family  group,  but  cherishes  no  com- 
munity ideal.  His  churches,  therefore,  represent 
the  common  religious  interest  of  a  group  of  house- 
holds. The  household  farmer  does  not  desire  to 
serve  the  community  religiously.  He  insists  that  the 
first  duty  of  the  Sunday-school  is  to  teach  the  chil- 
dren of  the  families  of  the  church.  He  is  willing 
that  others  should  attend,  but  he  does  not  solicit 
their  presence  in  his  church.  The  leading  officer  of 
such  a  church  in  central  Illinois,  when  his  minister 
proposed  to  evangelize  the  surrounding  countryside, 
said,  pointing  to  the  church  spire,  "  That  bell  can 
be  heard  for  ten  miles.  If  they  want  to  come  to  our 
church,  they  know  when  the  church  is  open." 

Competition  Means  Many  Churches.  With 
amazing  precision  the  Church  is  faithful  to  the  eco- 
nomic experience  of  the  people.  If  the  people  are 
uncooperative  in  getting  their  livelihood,  the 
churches  are  competitive,  no  matter  how  kindly  the 
neighbors  may  be  to  one  another.  If  their  work 
life  is  divided,  their  churches  are  many. 

Speculation  Disintegrates.  The  speculative  period 
of  farming  tends  to  dissolve  all  existing  units. 
Speculation  is  a  valuing  of  all  things  in  cash,  and 
cash  is  a  personal  possession.  The  more  money  a 
man  has,  the  more  he  is  drawn  apart  from  his 
relatives,  from  his  neighbors,  and  from  his  friends. 
When  a  man  becomes  very  rich  he  must  always 
question  whether  he  has  any  friends,  and  he  is  con- 
tinually annoyed  because  he  has  relatives.    Wealth 


io8        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

capitalizes  personahty.  Private  property  is  the 
clothing  of  individualism.  The  result  is  that  the 
period  of  exploitation  has  dissolved  the  rural  house- 
hold, undermined  the  country  Church,  and  caused 
the  country  community  to  disintegrate.  Its  effect 
upon  rural  society  is  revolutionary. 

Strength  of  Cooperative  Elements.  I  have  indi- 
cated above  that  this  speculative  process  is  retarded 
in  those  farming  populations  where  economic  co- 
operation prevails.  The  families  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania German  hold  together,  and  they  are  buying  the 
farms  which  their  neighbors  abandon.  There  is  no 
price  on  their  own  acres,  and  they  make  all  sacri- 
fices to  better  themselves  through  the  speculation 
in  farming  from  which  their  neighbors  are  suffer- 
ing. Mormons,  because  of  their  economic  coopera- 
tion, are  powerful  farming  people.  They  extend 
themselves  by  their  mass  activity.  In  both  these 
cases  the  churches  in  which  the  people  worship  are 
maintained  and  their  religious  life  has  continuous 
power,  because  they  are  able  to  resist  the  specula- 
tive processes  which  affect  their  neighbors.  They 
do  not  find  it  necessary  to  federate  their  churches 
in  the  interest  of  survival,  because  they  have  an 
anchorage  in  the  economic  unity  of  their  people. 
Their  churches  are  all  the  stronger  in  the  hold  upon 
the  individual,  because  they  are  the  societies  by 
which  the  business  life  of  the  people  is  compacted. 
To  use  a  metaphor,  the  Pennsylvania  German's 
church  is  his  labor  union. 

Means  for  Community  Institutions.    The  federa- 


Cooperation  and  Federation  109 

lion  of  churches  has  a  resource,  during  the  specu- 
lative period  of  farming,  in  the  cash  which  has  come 
into  the  country.  The  farmer  has  been  poor.  The 
period  immediately  after  the  Civil  War  withered 
and  impoverished  everything  connected  with  the 
farm.  In  that  period  no  proposals  could  be  made 
for  the  betterment  of  the  community  because  all 
common  interests  were  lacking  in  resources.  Such 
prosperity  as  farmers  enjoyed  enabled  them  sepa- 
rately to  survive,  but  now  the  time  has  come  when 
the  farmer  through  speculation  and  exploitation  has 
sufficient  means  for  building  community  institu- 
tions. 

A  Few  Can  Benefit  Many.  This  principle  works 
both  ways.  Not  only  are  there  people  in  the  com- 
munity who  have  money,  but  speculation  has  im- 
poverished very  many.  It  follows  that  community 
building  means  the  creation  of  institutions  in  which 
the  money  of  the  few  shall  minister  to  the  need 
of  the  many.  In  this  I  have  no  reference  to  pau- 
perism. I  am  thinking  only  of  the  needs  of  work- 
ing and  substantial  people  who  have  no  capital  and 
no  land. 

Union  Through  Large  Gifts.  The  country  com- 
munity may  be  united  through  the  gifts  of  the 
prosperous.  In  many  New  England  towns  the  old 
church  is  endowed.  A  few  people  have  prospered 
and  through  their  benefactions  the  many  are  united 
in  worship  or  in  service.  In  the  old  church  at  Unity, 
Pennsylvania,  the  gifts  of  well-to-do  people  have 
been  a  primary  factor  in  uniting  the  whole  commun- 


no        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ity.  The  brilliant  minister  and  the  doctrine  of  unity 
he  teaches  have  made  use  of  these  gifts,  but  the 
prosperity  of  the  few  has  made  the  community  pos- 
sible for  the  many.  An  essential  factor  in  federat- 
ing the  churches  will  be  the  large  gifts  of  those 
who  believe  in  the  community. 

May  Solve  Problem  of  Church  Consolidation. 
These  gifts  are  only  possible  in  a  time  of  specula- 
tive profits,  so  that  the  federation  of  churches  now 
needed  in  the  country  community  can  be  greatly 
helped  by  the  gifts  of  those  who  have  exploited  the 
resources  of  the  country.  A  country  church  in 
New  York  State,  in  which  many  denominations  were 
represented,  was  made  possible  by  the  munificence 
of  one  man,  whose  money  was  made  by  borrowing 
from  his  farmer  neighbors  at  four  per  cent,  and 
loaning  to  the  railroads  at  ten  per  cent.  He  insisted 
that  the  church  sustained  by  his  money  be  unde- 
nominational. Such  a  church  alone  could  have  sur- 
vived in  that  community.  The  outcome  illustrated 
the  value  of  a  large  financial  gift  in  settling  the 
intricate  problems  of  church  federation. 

A  Step  Toward  Church  Federation.  The  federa- 
tion of  churches  will  in  most  places  await  the  growth 
of  the  cooperative  spirit  among  the  farmers.  It  is 
impossible  for  people  who  are  divided  in  their 
economic  life  to  be  united  in  their  religious  life. 
The  spirit  of  competition  in  business  will  breed  a 
competitive  religious  spirit.  Those  who  are  daily 
contending  will  not  on  the  day  of  worship  unite. 
It  is  a  hopeful  sign  of  Church  federation  that  the 


^       H 


<       S 


Cooperation  and  Federation  iii 

spirit  of  cooperation  is  extending  among  country 
people.  As  soon  as  farmers  have  recognized  that 
they  can  work  together,  they  will  themselves  apply 
the  same  principle  to  their  churches. 

Unifying  Effect  of  the  Grange.  This  federating 
influence  is  exerted  by  the  Grange.  This  order, 
which  is  nominally  secret,  but  really  an  open  frater- 
nal order  of  country  people,  is  so  unlike  a  lodge  that 
it  is  generally  not  found  in  those  communities  in 
which  lodges  are  numerous.  The  Grange  unites 
men  instead  of  dividing  them.  Like  other  orders 
it  has  its  weaknesses  and  tends  to  fall  into  disrepair, 
but  at  its  best  the  Grange  has  a  unifying  power  in 
the  country  community.  Especially  in  the  commu- 
nity in  which  religious  people  cannot  come  to  agree- 
ment in  religious  matters  the  Grange  infuses  a 
spirit  of  union  among  them,  through  the  discus- 
sion of  everyday  interests  and  the  fine  social  pleas- 
ures which  it  furnishes. 

Not  Thoroughgoing  Enough.  The  great  weak- 
ness of  the  Grange  is  its  lack  of  economic  coopera- 
tion. No  farmers'  organization  which  has  not  the 
courage  and  thoroughness  to  get  under  the  farmer's 
income  and  bring  about  cooperation  in  the  securing 
of  a  livelihood  is  adequate  to  the  present  situation. 
The  Grange  has  attempted  cooperation  in  buying. 
It  has  in  certain  places  united  the  farmers  in  co- 
operative creameries  and  other  such  enterprises, 
but  these  have  generally  been  abandoned  and  the 
function  of  the  Grange  has  been  limited  to  that  of 
social  cooperation.     This  is  the  great  weakness  of 


112         The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

an  order  otherwise  so  extensive  and  so  influential. 
The  faults  of  the  Grange  are  those  that  arise  from 
this  superficial  attack  upon  the  problems  of  rural 
life.  It  is  in  danger  always  of  becoming  a  mere 
social  and  pleasure-providing  organization  and  of 
omitting  more  serious  aims. 

Good  Educative  Influence.  Nevertheless  the  gen- 
eral influence  of  the  Grange  is  to  accustom  country 
people  to  working  together.  It  enables  them  to 
meet,  to  discuss  given  interests,  and  to  get  used  to 
the  experiences  of  cooperative  effort.  They  learn 
to  obey  and  to  command,  to  serve  in  appointed  and 
delegated  places,  and  to  depend  upon  one  another, 
to  keep  appointments,  and  to  meet  problems  as  they 
arise  which  affect  the  community,  to  devote  them- 
selves to  interests  larger  than  their  own  homes  or 
their  own  properties. 

Successful  Examples  a  Help.  There  is  great  hope 
also  for  the  union  of  farmers  in  their  economic  and 
their  religious  life  in  the  cooperative  experiences  of 
other  sections  of  the  country.  Farmers  in  Dela- 
ware and  Maryland  who  have  restored  the  old  de- 
pleted lands  on  the  Eastern  Shore  by  small  fruit 
culture  are  cooperating  both  in  buying  and  selling 
through  their  produce  exchanges.  The  experience 
of  these  farmers  has  uncovered  certain  principles 
heretofore  unknown.  Contrary  to  all  expectation 
they  have  found  it  profitable  to  raise  throughout 
a  district  the  same  crop,  finding  that  a  better  market 
is  secured  for  a  carload  of  uniform  berries  than 
for    a    carload    made    up    of    different    varieties 


Cooperation  and  Federation  113 

and  competing  consignments  of  fruit.  Such  co- 
operation when  once  established  has  power  to  con- 
tinue. It  is  a  restraint  in  times  of  prosperity  and 
it  is  a  resource  in  times  of  depression.  Above  all, 
it  accustoms  country  people  to  cooperate  through 
their  constant  experience  of  working  together,  of 
sacrificing  for  one  another,  and  of  securing  larger 
gains  through  these  experiences.  When  one  thinks 
that  until  these  modern  experiences  of  cooperation 
there  have  been  in  America  no  foci  of  cooperative 
life  among  country  people,  one  is  not  surprised 
at  the  divided  condition  of  churches  and  the  com- 
petitive religious  life  of  the  country. 

Pacific  Coast  Fruit  Growers.  The  fruit  growers 
of  the  Pacific  Coast  have  been  obliged  to  cooperate 
in  order  to  sell  their  product.  Shipping  as  they  do 
across  a  whole  continent,  they  are  dependent  upon 
one  another  for  mass  action.  They  must  organize 
for  a  task  so  great  as  marketing  their  product. 
Individual  farmers  could  not  market  California 
fruit  in  New  York  as  the  union  of  fruit  growers  can 
do.  The  results  have  been  wonderful  in  the  suc- 
cess attained  in  marketing  the  fruit  and  in  the  ex- 
cellent prices  secured  by  these  Western  farmers. 
The  key  to  this  success  is  the  abolition  of  com- 
petitive cheating  and  trickery.  The  apples,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  Hood  Valley,  Oregon,  are  packed  by 
a  committee.  No  individual  farmer  manages  the 
preparation  of  his  own  apples  for  market.  The  com- 
mittee is  cold  and  impartial,  and  cares  only  for  the 
proper  grading  of  the  fruit  and  the  securing  of  a 


114         The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

buyer  through  reHable  and  fair  packing.  The 
product  is  so  uniform  and  the  quahty  of  the  fruit 
can  be  relied  on  so  generally ,  that  a  higher  price  is 
paid  for  a  box  of  apples  from  the  Pacific  Coast  in 
the  New  York  market  than  is  paid  for  a  barrel  of 
apples  from  New  York  State  itself. 

A  More  Complete  Example.  The  experience  of 
economic  federation  in  the  United  States  has  been 
so  rare  among  country  people  that  it  has  as  many 
critics  as  it  has  advocates.  The  places  are  too  few, 
the  federations  of  farmers  too  remote  from  one 
another  for  their  influence  to  be  very  great.  The 
experience  of  Denmark  stands  forth  in  our  time  as 
the  great  example  of  the  federation  of  country 
people  under  religious  stimulus,  in  the  interest  of 
the  whole  people.  I  am  indebted  for  these  facts, 
which  have  not  been  adequately  published  in  Eng- 
lish, to  Professor  Fred  Rasmussen,  of  the  New 
Hampshire  State  College  of  Agriculture. 

A  Transformed  Denmark.  Denmark  is  a  coun- 
try twice  the  size  of  Massachusetts,  having  two  and 
a  half  million  people.  Its  leading  industry  is  dairy- 
ing. By  1864  the  soil  was  depleted  of  fertility 
through  the  selling  of  grain  from  the  land.  The 
country  had  suffered  defeat  in  war,  lost  the  prov- 
inces of  Schleswig-Holstein,  and  was  under  a  heavy 
indemnity.  To-day  Denmark  is  the  most  produc- 
tive of  European  countries  and  has  the  highest  per 
capita  wealth  in  Europe.  "  In  Denmark,"  says 
Professor  Rasmussen,  "  there  are  only  a  few  who 
have  too  much,  and  still  fewer  who  have  too  little." 


Cooperation  and  Federation  115 

The  secret  of  this  national  prosperity  is  education, 
cooperation,  and  a  strong  national  spirit  pervading" 
the  whole  population. 

Value  of  Homogeneous  Stock.  The  people  are 
naturally  organized  by  the  fact  that  they  are  all  of 
one  national  stock.  The  example  of  Denmark  is 
significant  in  America,  because  in  America  the  peo- 
ple on  the  farms  are  mostly  American.  The  for- 
eign population  is  coming  into  the  cities  but  the 
country  population  is  American-born  with  con- 
spicuous and  well-known  exceptions.  Indeed,  the 
foreigners  who  are  tilling  the  soil  are  more  inclined 
to  cooperation  than  the  Americans  themselves.  But 
Denmark  having  a  homogeneous,  native-born,  coun- 
try population  of  a  strong  independent  type,  has 
been  able,  because  of  their  consciousness  of  kind,  to 
organize  cooperation  among  country  people.  What 
I  am  to  describe  concerns  the  rural,  and  not  the 
urban,  populations  of  Denmark. 

Range  of  Organization.  Natural  organization, 
steadily  growing,  has  developed  into  a  Central  Co- 
operative Committee  of  Denmark.  Under  this  na- 
tional organization  there  are  cooperative  societies 
for  production,  as  for  instance  cattle  breeding  asso- 
ciations. There  are  cooperative  societies  for  manu- 
facture of  country  products  into  commodities,  as 
the  manufacture  of  pork  into  bacon  and  of  milk 
into  butter  and  cheese.  These  processes  in  Denmark 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  farmers  themselves.  There 
are  cooperative  societies  for  the  protection  of 
health,  of  saving,  and  of  credit,  and  there  are  so- 


Ii6        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

f 

cieties  which  cooperate  in  the  active  brotherhood 
of  man. 

Altruistic  Feature.  Denmark  has  live  stock  gath- 
erings, societies  for  protecting  poor  men,  who  have 
but  one  horse  or  one  cow,  against  loss.  Some  well- 
to-do  farmers  belong  to  these  societies  in  order  to 
help  the  community.  Insurance  is  secured  by  co- 
operation. These  small  cooperative  bodies  have 
members  who  never  draw  their  benefits,  but  belong 
to  the  society  in  order  to  help  the  community. 
There  are  small  banks  in  Denmark  which  have  only 
one  man  on  salary.  The  president  of  the  bank  re- 
ceives $150  per  year,  while  directors  serve  in  turn 
without  pay. 

Sanitariums  Secured.  This  spirit  in  Denmark  is 
far  from  being  commercial;  it  is  at  once  religious, 
humane,  and  patriotic.  The  recent  discovery  that 
tuberculosis  can  be  cured  in  its  early  stages  occa- 
sioned a  great  movement  in  Denmark  to  provide 
sanitariums  for  the  cure  of  consumption.  A  general 
organization  under  the  leadership  of  ministers  and 
philanthropists  secured  contributions  for  this  pur- 
pose from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  so  general 
was  the  response,  so  small  the  gifts,  that  some  co- 
operative Bacon  Associations  contributed  as  little 
as  eighty-one  cents.  A  Creamery  Association  was 
solicited  to  contribute  five  cents  per  year  for  twenty 
years,  for  each  cow,  which  was  equivalent  to  one 
pint  of  milk  per  cow  per  year.  The  movement  for 
the  cure  of  consumptives  was  on  this  basis  success- 
ful, and  adequate  sanitariums  were  provided  out  of 


Cooperation  and  Federation  117 

these  small  gifts,  universally  contributed;  but  the 
cooperative  organization  of  Denmark  was  essential 
to  this  result. 

Idea  of  Collective  Success.  In  Denmark  tag 
days  are  general,  celluloid  flowers  being  used  in- 
stead of  unsightly  labels.  Cooperation  is  based  on  a 
sense  of  the  common  good  and  the  distribution  of 
the  strain  according  to  the  amount  of  business  done 
in  the  community,  and  on  a  spirit  of  helpfulness  as 
opposed  to  selfishness.  The  Danes  have  a  sense 
that  success  is  not  individual,  but  that  it  is  the  com- 
mon prosperity  of  all  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Sources  Defined.  Professor  Rasmussen  says  that 
the  sources  of  this  national  cooperation  in  Den- 
mark are,  first,  the  natural  growth  of  a  people  who 
are  akin  to  one  another.  The  second  cause  is  the 
educational  system,  which  all  observers  of  Den- 
mark say  is  stimulated  by  religious  motives.  The 
third  working  cause  in  Denmark  is  the  national 
songs  of  the  country.  These  are  heard  outside  the 
city.  They  are  rural  songs  of  the  woods,  of  the 
brooks,  of  the  birds,  and  of  the  fields.  And, 
fourthly,  the  students  in  the  schools  of  Denmark 
are  the  apostles  of  the  nationalist  movement.  They 
are  the  teachers  of  cooperation  and  they  work  in 
this  cause  without  pay. 

Inclusive  and  Intense  Character.  Teachers  in 
Denmark  are  cared  for.  The  public  quickly  re- 
sponds to  their  needs.  There  is  a  legal  department 
in  these  cooperative  systems  which  serves  those  who 


ii8        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

need,  free  of  charge.  Information  and  instruc- 
tion are  constantly  being  imparted  to  the  people, 
and  the  result  is  a  passionate  sense  of  common 
adversity  and  common  effort. 

Lines  of  Encouragement.  I  am  frequently  asked 
whether  the  country  Church  in  America  can  ever 
succeed,  whether  the  people  will  ever  return  to  the 
country  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make  it  a  power- 
ful institution,  competent  to  meet  the  needs  of 
American  country  life.  The  answer  is  found  in 
Denmark  and  in  Ireland.  For  these  two  countries 
are  meeting  under  the  guidance  of  consecrated  men 
the  problems  of  their  people.  Ireland  is  getting 
rid  of  her  beggars,  Denmark  has  abolished  pauper- 
ism and  closed  her  poorhouses,  and  is  building 
churches.  The  answer  to  this  question  is  found 
in  populations  of  the  United  States,  who  even  now, 
in  scientific  application  of  country  life  in  the  fed- 
eration of  their  institutions  and  cooperation  in 
securing  a  livelihood,  are  maintaining  themselves 
against  all  adverse  change. 

Worth  of  Religious  Idealism.  In  all  these  cases 
of  successful  country  life,  the  influence  of  religion 
and  of  a  passionate  idealism  is  evident.  The  Church 
is  the  farmer's  source  of  idealism.  Country  people 
have  not  many  institutions,  nor  will  they  ever  have; 
therefore  the  place  of  the  Church  is  a  great  one  and 
the  spirit  of  the  Church  should  be  cooperative :  the 
organizations  of  the  Church  should  be  federated. 
There  must  be  in  such  a  cooperative  life  of  the 
farmers   the    beginning   of    religious   cooperation. 


Cooperation  and  Federation  119 

The  opportunity  for  preaching  a  common  gospel 
among  the  farmers  thus  united  is  very  great,  for 
the  economic  experience  enters  largely  into  religious 
thought. 

Call  for  Religious  Sacrifice.  But  it  must  not  be 
inferred  that  without  religious  sacrifice  these  re- 
sults in  federation  can  be  easily  reaped.  Religious 
people  who  believe  in  federation  must  be  prepared 
to  make  sacrifices  for  it.  It  is  a  doctrine  with 
stern  implications,  and  when  all  its  meaning  is 
known  there  will  be  many  not  ready  to  strip  them- 
selves of  that  which  they  value  or  to  consecrate 
their  preferences  to  the  common  gain  of  the 
Kingdom. 

Quaker  Hill  Community  Church.  The  writer  was 
a  minister  at  Quaker  Hill,  New  York.  The  com- 
munity was  made  up  of  many  groups  of  members 
and  adherents  of  different  denominations.  When 
a  church  was  to  be  formed  he  asked  of  his  own  de- 
norpination  to  be  ordained  with  the  understanding 
that  the  church  thus  formed  would  not  be  of  his  de- 
nomination nor  of  any  other.  After  much  debate 
this  request  was  granted  and  he  was  ordained  for 
the  formation  of  a  church  from  which  his  own 
denominational  name  was  to  be  excluded.  At  its 
organization  the  five  near-by  congregations,  all  of 
them,  except  one,  located  in  other  communities, 
were  asked  to  send  minister  and  delegate  to  ap- 
prove the  independent  church  to  be  formed  on 
Quaker  Hill.  One  of  these  was  the  Quaker  Meet- 
ing, in  whose  territory  the  new  church  was  about 


I20        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

to  be  formed.  This  Quaker  Meeting  sent  as  its 
representative  an  aged  elder,  Richard  Osborn, 
whose  saintly  life  and  stern  nobility  of  character 
were  the  mainstay  of  the  declining  Meeting,  in  which 
his  fathers  had  for  almost  two  generations  wor- 
shiped. 

Personal  Sacrifice  Shown.  The  Baptist  minister 
invited  to  this  organization  of  an  independent 
church  had  by  his  preaching  converted  many  of 
the  members  of  the  proposed  church.  He  came  to 
the  meeting,  with  explicit  protest  and  with  great 
sacrifice  of  his  own  feelings,  and  impelled  by  a 
sense  of  duty  to  the  community,  in  which  he  had 
preached  the  gospel  with  power  and  tenderness.  He 
came  because  he  loved  the  members  of  the  church 
and  could  not  refuse.  He  was  appointed  to  give 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  the  new  church, 
and  did  so  with  grace  and  fervor.  The  old  Quaker 
elder  near  the  close  of  the  meeting,  when  all  "  sat 
in  silence,"  arose  and  in  words  of  inexpressible 
dignity  and  sweetness  welcomed  the  new  church 
into  the  community,  which  had  been  served  by  the 
Quakers  alone  for  two  centuries.  Richard  Osborn 
knew  when  he  so  spoke  that  at  his  death  the  Meet- 
ing which  he  loved  would  be  "  laid  down."  He 
was  passing  on  the  mantle  of  the  old  Quaker  preach- 
ers to  the  officers  of  the  new  church.  Into  this 
church  were  received  adherents  of  eleven  denomina- 
tions. 

Compromise  of  Principles  not  Required.  This 
story  is  told  in  order  to  illustrate  the  sacrifices 


Cooperation  and  Federation  121 

which  Christian  people  must  make  if  they  are  to 
have  federation;  whatever  is  demanded  for  the 
sake  of  a  united  community  must  be  done,  so  long 
as  it  involves  no  sacrifice  of  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  people  now  living  in  that  community.  If  you 
believe  in  federation,  you  must  believe  in  the  people 
whose  hearts  God  has  touched  more  than  you  be- 
lieve in  the  peculiar  doctrines  which  have  pleased 
and  convinced  yourself.  The  common  and  universal 
beliefs  of  Christian  people  are  enough  for  any  man 
who  would  be  united  in  a  noble  Christianity. 
Whatever  sacrifice  is  demanded  of  a  Christian  in  a 
community  must  be  made  that  the  whole  community 
may  be  one.  This  can  be  done  without  essential 
compromise  of  principles.  If  the  spirit  be  Christian 
and  if  the  devotion  of  the  man  be  a  uniting  experi- 
ence, he  can  let  his  preferences  be  known  without 
offense.  The  example  of  his  self-sacrifice  in  lay- 
ing them  aside  for  the  sake  of  the  community  will 
be  the  more  impressive. 

Federation  a  Present  Ideal.  On  the  Whole  very 
little  is  being  done  throughout  the  United  States 
in  the  federation  of  churches.  It  is  an  ideal  of 
men  rather  than  a  practise.  Probably  in  the  fu- 
ture it  will  be  seen  that  our  discussion  of  federation 
to-day  was  preliminary  to  a  great  religious  move- 
ment, the  end  of  which  we  cannot  now  see.  Nearly 
everybody  professes  to  believe  in  it,  with  sincerity, 
but  the  difficulties  are  so  many  and  the  path  of  action 
is  so  obscure  that  results  are  not  obtained. 

Definite   Progress  in  Maine.     In  the   State   of 


122        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Maine,  where  the  Protestant  churches  have  a  homo- 
geneous population  and  the  whole  State  has  a  cer- 
tain unity,  federation  of  churches  has  had  a  defi- 
nite success,  and,  within  limits,  a  power  and  an 
efficiency  little  known  elsewhere.  Leadership  is  a 
large  factor  in  this  success,  for  the  State  has  a 
few  recognized  leaders  whose  voice  is  heard  by  all 
men.  Conspicuous  among  these  is  President  Wil- 
liam DeWitt  Hyde,  of  Bowdoin  College.  The 
proposal  of  federation  came  from  a  Methodist 
minister  and  all  denominations  of  Protestants  are 
united.  So  well  established  has  the  work  of  this 
federation  become  that  communities  which  find 
themselves  in  need  of  uniting  their  churches  are 
able  to  request  the  kindly  offices  of  the  federation 
and  to  promise  obedience  to  its  mandates.  On  the 
proper  occasion  the  officers  of  the  federation  come 
to  the  community,  study  the  situation,  and  deter- 
mine upon  an  arrangement  of  the  churches.  Some- 
times an  individual  church  must  go  out  of  exist- 
ence, and  the  federation  decides  which  one  shall  be 
abandoned.  The  rural  population  of  Maine  is  in 
many  communities  less  than  in  former  years  and 
fewer  churches  are  needed.  Moreover,  the  people 
are  more  united  in  spirit  than  they  were,  so  that 
the  federation  corresponds  to  the  changes  in  popu- 
lation and  in  social  feeling.  General  obedience  to 
the  decision  of  the  federation  and  respect  for  its 
high  purposes  have  resulted,  in  the  course  of  its 
history. 

Outlook  of  New  England  Federation.    The  New 


Cooperation  and  Federation  123 

England  Federation  of  Churches  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Rev.  E.  Tallmadge  Root,  Secretary,  is 
doing  valuable  service  in  bringing  the  churches  of 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  to  a  sense  of  their 
common  duty  to  the  community.  It  is  holding  con- 
stantly before  the  churches  the  ideal  of  united  serv- 
ice to  the  whole  people. 

Federal  Council  of  Churches.  The  Federal  Coun- 
cil of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  is  a 
union  of  leading  Protestant  denominations  in  the 
interest  of  American  religious  life.  It  is  impor- 
tant that  there  be  such  a  center,  as  a  clearing- 
house of  information,  as  headquarters  for  reference 
in  the  inquiries  that  bear  upon  the  mutual  relations 
of  the  churches,  for  the  Federal  Council  can  act 
as  a  mediary  between  denominations  when  they  in- 
cline toward  union.  It  does  also  great  service  in 
organizing  local  federations  of  States  and  of 
counties. 

Federation  by  Counties.  In  certain  counties  of 
Pennsylvania  the  unit  for  federated  action  has  been 
found  to  be  not  the  community  in  which  are  a  num- 
ber of  separate  churches,  but  the  county.  The 
reason  given  is  that  the  county  is  more  neutral.  It 
is  neither  a  conference,  nor  an  association,  nor  a 
diocese,  nor  a  presbytery,  but  it  is  a  civil  division, 
corresponding  in  extent  to  any  one  of  these  dis- 
tricts. The  relation  of  church  federation  to  public 
reform,  to  public  sanitation,  and  to  the  humane 
interests  of  the  churches,  suggests  that  the  county 
be  the  unit  in  federating  the  churches.    This  move- 


124        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ment  in  Pennsylvania  has  gone  far  enough  to  show 
that  it  is  on  right  lines.  The  experience  of  the 
ministers  in  working  together  brings  forth  results, 
but  slowly.  Sentiment  is  growing,  and  the  basis  of 
procedure  seems  to  be  a  correct  one. 

An  Ideal  Gradually  to  be  Realized.  Above  all, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  federation  is  an  ideal. 
It  grows  out  of  the  situation  of  modern  life.  It 
must  be  cherished  with  reserve  and  at  the  same 
time  with  emphasis.  It  has  great  promise  for  the 
future,  though  very  often  it  seems  impracticable  in 
the  present.  Because  the  community  cannot  work 
in  the  federation  there  is  no  reason  why  the  minis- 
ter and  leading  Christian  people  shall  not  advocate 
it.  In  time  the  change  will  come.  It  is  well  that 
it  should  not  come  too  soon.  Those  who  have 
known  how  great  is  the  cost  of  uniting  denomina- 
tions are  in  no  hurry  to  precipitate  the  difficulties 
and  the  bitter  costs  of  such  a  movement.  What 
we  need  above  all  is  the  experience  of  working 
together.  Christian  people  must  work  and  pray, 
their  ministers  must  preach,  and  the  teaching  of 
their  leaders  must  be  to  the  end  that  all  Christians 
may  be  one.  This  is  the  path  in  which  we  are 
going.  It  is  written  large  upon  the  future  and  it 
is  bursting  in  hope  and  aspiration  from  the  hearts 
of  the  best  people  in  the  churches.  When  the  time 
comes  it  will  appear  as  the  kingdom  of  God  does, 
without  observation.  But  in  that  coming  there  are  to 
be  great  sacrifices  and  profound  changes  in  the  life, 
in  the  thought,  and  the  feeling  of  Christian  people. 


POVERTY  AND  PROSPERITY 


Next  to  war,  pestilence,  and  famine,  the  worst  thing  that  can  hap- 
pen to  a  rural  community  is  absentee  landlordism.  In  the  first  place, 
the  rent  is  all  collected  and  sent  out  of  the  neighborhood  to  be  spent 
somewhere  else;  but  that  is  the  least  of  the  evils.  In  the  second 
place,  there  is  no  one  in  the  neighborhood  who  has  any  permanent 
interest  in  it  except  as  a  source  of  income.  The  tenants  do  not  feel 
like  spending  any  time  or  money  in  beautification,  or  in  improving 
the  moral  or  social  surroundings.  Their  one  interest  is  to  get  as 
large  an  income  from  the  land  as  they  can  in  the  immediate  present. 
Because  they  do  not  live  there,  the  landlords  care  nothing  for  the 
community,  except  as  a  source  of  rent,  and  they  will  not  spend  any- 
thing in  local  improvements  unless  they  see  that  it  will  increase 
rent.  Therefore  such  a  community  looks  bad,  and  possesses  the  legal 
minimum  in  the  way  of  schools,  churches,  and  other  agencies  for 
social  improvement.  In  the  third  place,  and  worst  of  all,  the  land- 
lords and  tenants  live  so  far  apart  and  see  one  another  so  infre- 
quently as  to  furnish  very  little  opportunity  for  mutual  acquaintance 
and  understanding.  Therefore  class  antagonism  arises,  and  bitterness 
of  feeling  shows  itself  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Where  the  whole  neigh- 
borhood is  made  up  of  a  tenant  class  which  feels  hostile  toward  the 
absent-landlord  class,  evasions  of  all  kinds  are  resorted  to  in  order 
to  beat  the  hated  landlords.  On  the  other  hand,  the  landlords  are 
goaded  to  retaliation,  and  the  rack-rent  system  prevails.  Sometimes 
the  community  feeling  among  tenants  becomes  so  strong  as  to  develop 
a  kind  of  artificial  "  tenant  right,"  which  is  in  opposition  to  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  the  laws  of  the  land  are  then  made  more  severe  in 
order   to   control   the    "  tenant   right." — Thomas  Nixon    Carver 


126 


VI 

POVERTY  AND  PROSPERITY 

Increasing  Proportion  of  Poor.  The  increase  in 
the  number  of  industrious  poor  weighs  heavily 
upon  the  minds  of  Christian  people.  Not  only  is 
the  number  increased  of  those  who  are  poor,  but 
the  proportion  in  the  population  appears  to  be 
greater  than  it  was.  This  increase  came  to  atten- 
tion at  the  very  time  when  the  free  lands  in  the 
United  States  were  exhausted.  For  while  there 
are  still  some  homesteads  to  be  given  away  or  sold, 
their  influence  upon  the  life  of  the  country  is  not 
what  it  was.  We  are  at  the  end  of  the  period  of 
the  influence  of  free  land  upon  our  racial  stock. 
It  is  striking  now  to  discover  that  millions  of  people 
in  America  are  without  land  and  without  productive 
tools. 

Term  Defined.  To  be  poor,  in  the  meaning  of 
this  chapter,  is  to  be  landless  and  without  pro- 
ductive tools.  We  are  not  concerned  here  with 
the  tramp  or  the  outcast,  important  as  their  cases 
are,  but  with  society  itself  and  with  the  community, 
in  which  is  discovered  a  large  essential  factor  con- 
sisting of  persons  who  do  not  own  productive  land 
or  tools.  These  I  call  poor,  because  with  no  land 
and  no  capital  they  are  unable  to  resist  the  strain 

127 


128        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

of  want  and  it  is  easy  for  them  to  be  plunged  into 
pauperism.  Their  life  is  one  of  struggle.  They 
are  breadwinners.  Very  many  of  them  are  de- 
pendent upon  wages.  In  the  country  they  are  tenant 
farmers  or  "  renters,"  who  are  striving  generally  to 
possess  land.  In  the  cities  they  are  clerks  and 
working  men  and  women  who  work  for  hire,  hav- 
ing no  ownership  in  productive  industry. 

Tenant  Farmers  in  Productive  States.  It  is 
amazing  that  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  people  in  the 
open  country,  in  the  wealthiest  farming  States,  are 
without  land  and  do  not  own  the  tools  by  which 
the  land  is  tilled.  They  are  tenant  farmers.  The 
proportion  of  these  tenants  is  shown  by  the  last 
census  ^  to  have  greatly  increased  in  the  States 
in  which  the  soil  is  richest.  Moreover,  in  these 
States  the  proportion  of  tenants  is  greater  in  those 
counties  where  the  soil  is  most  productive,  and 
smaller  in  the  counties  where  the  soil  is  poorer. 

Diminished  Number  in  New  England.  In  the 
New  England  States,  whose  soil  has  been  depleted, 
the  proportion  of  tenant  farmers  has  diminished  in 
the  past  ten  years.  Now  the  religious  approach 
to  a  renter  is  different  from  the  approach  to  an 
owner  of  land.  He  looks  upon  life  in  a  wholly 
different  way,  and  religion  is  so  intimate  to  the 
experiences  of  men  that  it  takes  a  different  form 
in  the  man  who  is  poor,  that  is,  economically  de- 
pendent. He  does  not  think  as  the  landowner  does, 
nor  feel  as  he  feels. 

*  Census  of  1910. 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  129 

Southern  Landholders  and  Tenants.  Principal 
Webb,  the  famous  master  of  the  fitting  school  at 
Bellebuckle,  Tennessee,  described  this  condition  to 
me  in  some  such  terms  as  this :  "  The  old-style 
Southern  farmer  was  a  landholder.  He  had  books 
and  read  them.  He  sent  his  son  to  college,  and  he 
supported  the  Church.  But  the  modern  farmer  in 
the  Southern  States  is  close.  He  holds  to  every  dol- 
lar with  jealous  care.  He  buys  no  books.  His  chil- 
dren do  not  seek  higher  education.  He  is  eager  to 
own  land  and  to  buy  more  land."  The  tenant 
farmer  has  become  the  type  of  countryman  in  many 
of  these  Southern  States.  In  Georgia,  Mississippi, 
Alabama,  and  Louisiana  the  proportion  of  tenant 
farmers  is  between  fifty  and  sixty  per  cent.  In 
Tennessee  the  renters,  as  they  are  called  in  the 
South,  are  one  half  of  the  country  population. 

Determining  Factor  in  Problem.  It  is  not  my 
present  concern  to  picture  the  condition  of  eco- 
nomic dependence,  except  as  it  is  found  in  the  open 
country,  but  to  show  that  it  is  the  cause  which  is 
changing  the  religious  and  political  and  educational 
complexion  of  the  cities  as  well.  The  poor  are 
multiplying  about  the  churches,  and  with  their  large 
proportions  they  have  become  the  determining  fac- 
tor in  public  and  social  work  throughout  the  country. 

Duty  Required  at  Present.  These  increases  in 
the  proportion  of  those  who  are  dependent  on  others 
for  land  and  for  tools  is  most  marked  in  the 
wealthiest  parts  of  the  country.  In  the  States  which 
are  stored  with  the  greatest  potential  wealth,  as 


130       The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  and  Colorado, 
the  proportions  of  the  poor  are  the  greatest.  This 
is  the  most  discouraging  and  burdensome  fact 
of  all.  I  intend  to  offer  no  solution  of  it.  It  is 
for  Christian  people  to  serve,  while  this  condition 
prevails,  as  Christ  would  serve  such  a  people  ac- 
cording to  their  needs. 

Apparently  Permanent  Condition.  So  far  as  we 
can  now  see,  these  conditions  are  permanent.  Their 
causes  are  established.  Men  differ  as  to  the  remedy. 
Until  they  can  agree  and  we  may  unite  in  a  states- 
manship which  will  distribute  the  wealth  of  the 
country  among  the  people,  it  is  the  duty  of  Chris- 
tians to  think  and  serve  and  work  for  the  poor. 
The  forces  which  perpetuate  this  condition  are  es- 
sential to  our  life.  We  know  no  better  way  of  life 
than  the  American  way.  Many  of  those  who  are 
without  land  and  without  tools  become  well-to-do, 
and  some  have  become  rich;  but  nevertheless  the 
numbers  of  the  poor  are  as  great,  and  the  propor- 
tions of  the  poor  are  increasing.  So  long  as 
America  is  a  prosperous  country  it  will  be  filled 
in  the  cities  and  out  in  the  open  country  with  in- 
coming streams  of  immigration  from  poorer  lands. 
As  long  as  our  richest  lands  can  be  used  to  remedy 
this  condition,  they  will  be  exploited  by  increasing 
proportions  of  breadwinners,  of  whom  the  most 
will  fill  the  ranks  of  the  working  poor. 

Religious  Abolition  of  Poverty.  Jesus  said, 
"  Blessed  are  ye  poor,  for  yours  is  the  kingdom  of 
God."    What  did  he  mean  ?    It  does  not  seem  so  to 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  131 

us.  His  meaning  is  not  a  part  of  our  philosophy  of 
life.  It  is  not  an  American  way  of  looking  at 
things.  Was  he  right,  and  if  so,  was  he  right  only 
for  Syria  and  for  Palestine?  Is  poverty  in 
America  a  religious  condition?  I  want  in  this 
chapter  to  ^how  that  in  the  country  community 
poverty  can  be  under  the  control  of  the  community 
and  pauperism  can  be  abolished.  The  process  of 
lifting  any  population  out  of  poverty  is  for  them  a 
religious  experience.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  indi- 
vidual. For  a  man  to  get  rich  often  means  for 
him  to  lose  his  religion;  but  for  a  whole  people  to 
be  lifted  out  of  poverty  by  a  gain  that  is  distributed 
through  the  number,  is  usually  in  history  an  ex- 
perience attended  with  religious  gains.  For  a  com- 
munity or  a  commonwealth  to  keep  all  of  its  mem- 
bers out  of  poverty  and  to  care  for  its  poor,  is  a 
religious  experience.  Indeed  the  most  tenacious 
and  valuable  religious  experience  we  have  had  in 
the  country  is  among  those  people  who  have  cared 
for  their  poor,  have  fought  the  battle  against  pau- 
perism in  the  interest  of  their  weaker  members,  and 
have  built  up  a  way  of  life  for  the  people  as  a 
whole  in  which  the  blighting  and  destroying  effects 
of  poverty  shall  not  be  felt. 

Protestant  Developments  from  Poverty.  As  a 
matter  of  history,  all  the  Protestant  denominations, 
except  two,  have  grown  out  of  the  condition 
of  poverty.  The  various  branches  of  the  Presby- 
terian, Reformed,  Methodist,  and  Baptist  churches 
in  the  United  States,  as  also  the  Quakers  and  the 


132        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

various  Mennonite  churches,  such  as  the  Dunkers 
and  the  Amish,  have  all  come  from  populations 
which  were  poor  together,  and  their  religious  life 
has  been  enjoyed  along  with  the  betterment  of  their 
condition.  They  have  gotten  a  better  livelihood 
as  they  matured  and  elaborated  their  religious  sys- 
tems. The  Wesleys  preached  to  people  in  England 
who  were  so  poor  that  the  Church  of  England 
would  not  have  them,  but  John  Wesley  while  he 
lived  commented  on  the  economic  improvement  of 
his  people,  and  once  he  humorously  said,  "  I  cannot 
keep  my  Methodists  poor."  ^ 

Marginal  People  Determine  T5rpe  of  Community 
Life.  Moreover  the  religious  character  of  poor 
people  who  are  saved  from  pauperism  is  shown  in 
this  that  the  people  without  lands  and  without  tools 
are  the  marginal  people  of  the  community,  and 
upon  them  the  standards  of  moral  and  religious 
feeling  in  the  community  rest.  Their  way  of  liv- 
ing fixes  the  standard  for  the  community.  It  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  higher  standards  will  prevail 
throughout  the  community  than  they  can  attain  to. 
This  is  the  reason  why  in  New  York  City  the  prob- 
lems of  the  tenement-house  are  the  problems  of 
the  whole  city.  Not  everybody  lives  in  a  tenement 
in  New  York,  but  people  who  live  in  private  houses 
cannot  be  sure  that  their  children  will  be  more 
healthy,  or  more  moral,  or  more  spiritual  than  the 
people  who  live  in  the  tenement-house  may  be:  the 
moral  standards  of  the  tenement-house  prevail 
throughout  the  whole  city.    This  is  the  reason  why 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  133 

the  mill-worker  is  so  important  in  the  community 
life  of  Pittsburgh.  The  well-to-do  people  of  Pitts- 
burgh are  many  and  excellent,  but  the  standards  of 
moral  feeling  and  of  religious  experience  which 
prevail  among  the  mill-workers  influence  the  people 
of  the  whole  city. 

Working  People  Fix  the  Outlook.  In  the  country 
community  the  tenant  farmer  determines  the  stand- 
ards of  conduct  for  the  community.  Of  course  a 
few  will  always  be  better  than  he,  but  I  am  speaking 
in  social  terms,  and  social  conditions  are  not  made 
up  of  the  few.  The  average  child  in  the  country 
community  is  more  under  the  influence  of  the  tenant 
farmer  and  the  conditions  of  the  tenant  farmer's 
house,  than  he  is  of  his  own  household,  no  matter 
how  well  born  he  be.  The  essential  problems  of 
the  working  people  of  any  community  must  be 
regarded  as  vital  problems  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. 

Relation  to  Faith.  If  this  is  true,  then  poverty 
is  a  religious  condition,  and  they  who  have  been 
poor,  who  have  lived  for  years  without  knowledge 
of  the  future,  who  have  no  store  of  goods  to  live 
upon,  know  that  faith  in  God  is  the  faith  of  the 
Twenty-third  Psalm,  and  they  know  that  depend- 
ence upon  God  for  daily  supply  is  the  beginning  of 
religious  experience.  The  anxieties  of  the  family 
as  to  the  future  and  as  to  the  clothing  and  edu- 
cation of  their  children,  as  to  those  things  neces- 
sary for  self-respect,  are  the  sources  of  religious 
experience  and  of  the  belief  in  God.     This  is  why 


134        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 
Jesus  said,  "  Blessed  are  ye  that  hunger  now,  for  ye 
shall  be  filled." 

Making  Ideals  Effective.  "  If  there  is  a  new 
birth  in  the  Church,"  says  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine, 
head  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  New 
York  City,  "  it  will  deal  with  poverty,  not  alone 
through  deacons'  and  orphan  alms,  though  these 
have  their  place,  but  by  developing  throughout  the 
membership  of  the  Church  the  ideal  of  a  Christian 
community  in  which  chronic  poverty,  like  profes- 
sional crime,  will  have  disappeared."  ^  On  another 
page  of  the  same  book  he  says,  "  Poverty  can 
be  abolished  and  permanent  progress  cannot  be 
made  until  it  is." 

Challenge  to  the  Churches.  What  a  challenge  to 
the  churches  is  this  from  the  same  writer,  whose 
splendid  faith  in  the  power  of  religion  is  unshaken 
in  the  midst  of  the  misery  of  a  great  city!  "  Pre- 
ventable disease,  probably  not  less  than  one  half  of 
all  the  disease  which  we  now  have,  and  prevent- 
able accidents,  probably  two  thirds  of  those  which 
we  now  have,  will  certainly  disappear,  when  as  the 
result  of  the  spiritual  awakening  in  the  churches, 
there  is  a  private  and  a  public  conscience  which  will 
deal  with  their  causes." 

Quaker  Ability  to  Fight  Poverty.  The  difference 
between  the  country  and  the  city  is  most  marked 
in  the  greater  ability  of  the  country  community, 
as  shown  in  American  history,  to  deal  with  pov- 
erty.    The  country  life  movement  will  contribute 

*  Social  Forces,  go,  206,  207. 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  135 

a  priceless  gift  to  the  future  if  it  leads  men  to  imi- 
tate successfully  these  country  communities  which 
have  saved  their  people  from  pauperism;  for  this 
the  cities  have  not  done.  The  Quaker  settlements 
in  the  country  have  known  how  to  fight  the  battle 
with  pauperism.  For  a  century  and  a  half  certain 
Quaker  communities  have  maintained  themselves  in 
the  country  and  none  among  them  has  suffered  from 
poverty.  This  has  not  been  due  to  their  being  uni- 
formly rich,  for  the  Quakers  are  subtly  aristo- 
cratic, and  marked  differences  prevail  among  them. 
But  the  whole  community  has  been  trained  under 
the  influence  of  the  Meeting  to  care  for  their  mem- 
bers who  possess  but  one  horse  and  one  cow. 
Whenever  at  Quaker  Hill  a  working  man  has  lost  his 
horse  or  cow  or  suffered  through  fire  the  loss  of  his 
house  or  bam,  the  whole  community  has  responded 
and  restored  to  him  that  which  was  lost.  Thus  for 
almost  two  centuries  the  whole  population  has  been 
kept  from  pauperism. 

Instance  at  Quaker  Hill.  This  applies  to  the 
members  of  the  community,  whether  Quakers  or 
not.  On  this  hilltop  the  population  of  Quakers  is 
now  small.  About  ten  years  ago  an  outsider  secured 
the  contract  for  delivering  mail  on  Quaker  Hill. 
He  had  not  yet  begun  to  take  the  profits  of  his 
contract  when  one  of  his  horses  died.  These 
horses  were  his  productive  tools.  Within  a  very 
short  time  the  whole  community  by  apparently 
spontaneous  action  had  subscribed  the  money  to  buy 
him  a  horse.     The  influence  of  this  act  in  weld- 


136        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ing  the  community  into  one  was  almost  incredible. 
Its  effect  upon  the  recipient  himself  need  not  be 
described. 

Pennsylvania  German  Communal  Success.  "  The 
Pennsylvania  Germans  "  are  a  group  of  populations 
religiously  organized,  who  had  their  sources  among 
the  poor  of  Europe,  at  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  leading  influence  among  them  is  the 
Mennonite  way  of  life  from  which  the  Quakers' 
mode  of  life  is  derived.  They  have  the  same  meth- 
ods of  extinguishing  pauperism.  These  methods 
have  now  become  instinctive  and  they  apply  to  all 
residents  in  the  community,  whether  members  of 
the  Meeting  or  not.  The  religious  genius  of  the 
Mennonites  and  the  Quakers  has  recognized  that 
"  the  injury  of  one  is  the  concern  of  all." 

Contrast  with  New  England.  Contrast  this  deal- 
ing with  poverty  to  methods  which  have  prevailed 
in  New  England,  where  with  all  the  sense  of  the 
community,  as  expressed  in  the  Town  Meeting,  the 
poor  were  neglected.  The  genius  of  New  England 
has  been  to  emphasize  the  success  of  leading  citi- 
zens. All  the  community's  oil  was  put  in  the  lamp 
of  the  boy  who  went  to  college.  The  man  who  be- 
came rich,  the  deacon  in  the  church,  or  any  other 
person  whose  success  in  business,  in  scholarship,  or 
in  piety  was  eminent  satisfied  the  mind  of  the  New 
Englander,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  were  not  re- 
garded. The  result  has  been  that  many  of  the  New 
England  stock  have  been  neglected,  the  community 
has  lost  very  often  its  ablest  members  and  has  been 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  137 

proud  of  their  departure  into  far-off  eminence.  But 
the  community  has  suffered  through  the  weakness 
of  its  poorer  members  and  has  gone  down  with 
them,  in  obedience  to  the  principle  that  the  people 
who  are  poor  determine  the  moral  and  spiritual 
standards  of  the  community. 

Must  Guard  People's  Source  of  Income.  We 
have  had  in  all  the  American  population  a  devo- 
tion to  the  poor  which  is  religious  and  educational, 
but  not  economic.  I  am  urging  the  sincere  care  of 
the  income  of  the  poorer  members.  The  commu- 
nity must  see  that  they  have  enough  to  live  on,  and 
that  their  sources  of  income  are  not  impaired.  It 
is  not  sufficient  that  we  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
poor,  and  care  nothing  for  their  living.  They  will 
not  take  from  us  the  word  of  eternal  life  if  we  do 
not  guard  their  possession  of  a  livelihood.  The 
beginning  of  the  process  of  eternal  life  is  the  eating 
of  daily  bread.  We  do  not  need  to  care  for  the 
income  of  the  well-to-do.  There  is  nothing  re- 
ligious about  the  salary  of  a  man  who  has  ten 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  but  the  income  of  a  man 
who  never  has  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  to 
spare  is  a  religious  problem  to  him  and  to  his 
family  and  to  the  community. 

Educational  Measures  not  Enough.  Educational 
measures  for  the  poor  are  not  sufficient.  The  pub- 
lic school  system,  which  is  standardized  so  that  the 
child  of  the  poorest  can  attend  school  and  is 
protected  by  law  so  that  he  must  attend,  does  not 
protect  the  community  against  poverty.    We  have 


138        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

nothing  within  the  educational  system  that  leads  a 
whole  population  into  ownership  of  land  and  tools. 
Indeed  the  States  in  which  the  proportions  of  tenant 
farmers  are  increasing  are  the  States  with  an  ex- 
cellent educational  system  and  all  the  children  of 
the  people  going  to  school. 

Churches  Built  by  Working  Folk.  Meantime 
the  churches  of  the  country  are  probably  built,  cer- 
tainly their  first  structures  were  erected,  out  of  the 
contributions  of  people  many  of  whom  never  owned 
a  thousand  dollars.  They  are  the  folk  who  give 
for  the  establishment  of  religious  institutions. 
They  know  the  value  of  religion  to  themselves. 
They  show  by  their  gifts  in  the  hardest  situations 
of  life,  as  on  the  frontier,  that  common  religious 
experience  is  precious  above  all  things.  To  no  other 
social  institution  do  they  contribute  so  much  and 
so  universally  as  to  the  erection  of  churches  and  to 
the  support  of  ministers. 

A  Church  Losing  Its  Democratic  Basis.  Yet 
strange  to  say,  the  attention  of  churches  is  too  fre- 
quently, after  their  earliest  days,  turned  upon  the 
few  persons  of  means  in  their  membership.  I  re- 
member a  church  in  Nebraska,  standing  on  the  rim 
of  an  unexplored  prairie,  which  had  but  ten  years 
of  growth  behind  it,  in  which  one  man,  giving  five 
hundred  dollars  a  year  to  the  minister,  was  the  con- 
trolling factor.  The  church  had  been  erected  by  the 
homesteaders  in  the  days  of  the  bitter  poverty  of 
Nebraska,  but  soon  it  lost  the  democracy  of  its 
early  methods  and  looked  to  the  prosperous  citizen 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  139 

for  his  gift,  which,  in  spite  of  his  wisdom  and 
nobihty  of  character,  was  corrupting  and  degrading 
to  them. 

Need  of  Church  as  a  Training  Center.  The  im- 
portant principle  in  Church  Hfe  throughout  the 
country  as  a  whole  to-day  is  to  make  the  Church  a 
channel  for  consecrating  the  growing  prosperity  of 
the  people.  Poverty  which  is  governed  by  the  com- 
munity, with  pauperism  excluded  by  the  common 
action  of  the  people,  is  a  religious  condition,  but  it 
is  for  the  Church  to  organize  this  into  a  system  of 
contribution,  by  which  the  people  shall  continue  to 
give  as  they  prosper.  The  Church  will  thus  become 
the  religious  drill-ground  of  the  whole  population. 
They  will  learn  in  it  the  lessons  of  benevolence,  of 
missionary  giving,  and  of  stewardship.  Such  a 
Church  will  train  leaders  in  the  great  enterprises 
of  the  future.  From  such  a  Church  will  come  the 
presidents  of  colleges  and  workers  in  the  great 
charities,  the  millionaires  who  give  in  their  abun- 
dance to  splendid  enterprises,  and  the  philanthro- 
pists whose  princely  gifts  will  lead  in  solving  the 
terrifying  problems  of  the  world. 

Principle  of  Envelope  System.  This  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  envelope  system  of  contributions,  which 
does  not  standardize  the  gifts  of  the  whole  congre- 
gation upon  the  rich  man  who  may  pass  away  or 
who  may  do  worse  by  remaining  and  controlling 
the  church.  The  envelope  gifts  of  all  the  people 
in  the  church  look  alike.  Giving  to  the  Lord  by 
this  method  makes  the  passing  of  the  plate  a  holy 


I40        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

act,  unsullied  by  envy  and  by  shame.  In  a  working 
community  it  is  one  of  the  most  essential  ways  of 
securing  the  attendance  of  the  poor  at  church. 
Congregations  all  over  the  United  States  are  trans- 
forming their  system  of  pew-rents  into  a  system  of 
envelope  giving.  This  system  must  not  be  thought 
of  as  "  businesslike  "  alone.  It  is  a  method  in  the 
administration  of  the  churches  which  expresses  a 
greater  wisdom  and  a  new  devotion;  for  the  peo- 
ple are  prospering,  even  in  the  poverty  which  can 
give  only  through  envelopes.  The  church  is  their 
common  possession,  and  by  this  system  the  poor  can 
give  to  the  church  in  the  same  way  as  the  widow 
gave  to  the  temple,  whose  two  mites  were  "  all  she 
had." 

People  Prizing  a  Common  Project.  A  church  in 
New  York  State,  whose  bills  were  all  paid  from 
an  endowment,  decided  to  turn  to  the  support  of  a 
foreign  missionary.  Their  pastor,  who  received 
nothing  from  them  for  his  living,  led  them  into 
giving  to  the  support  of  a  missionary  board.  The 
result  of  a  canvass  of  the  community  in  this  inter- 
est was  surprising  to  all.  More  people  took  part 
in  this  act  of  giving  than  in  any  other  one  collective 
act  of  the  congregation.  The  list  of  givers  to  the 
salary  in  China  was  longer  than  the  church-mem- 
bership, larger  than  that  of  the  Sunday-school, 
with  the  young  people's  societies  combined.  Every- 
body desired  to  have  a  hand  in  this  community  sup- 
port of  a  missionary  physician  in  China.  The 
community   itself  was  entering  into  the  days  of 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  141 

cash  values.  A  profitable  form  of  farming  sus- 
tained country  people  there.  They  recognized  their 
obligations  to  the  Lord  in  the  cheerful  and  hearty 
support  of  this  common  project. 

Result  of  a  Thorough  Canvass.  A  Wisconsin 
minister  began  his  pastorate  on  $450  per  year.  He 
did  not  tell  the  bride  whom  he  asked  to  share 
this  munificent  living  that  one  tenth  of  it  was  al- 
ready promised  to  the  Lord.  Against  her  vocifer- 
ous protest  he  paid  his  tithe  during  their  first  year. 
He  went  with  equal  vigor  to  his  church  officers  and 
insisted  that  everybody  in  the  congregation  should 
be  canvassed  for  an  offering  to  the  Lord ;  and  when 
they  after  a  feeble  effort  stopped  short,  he  offered 
to  their  amazement  to  canvass  the  rest  himself,  and 
against  their  protest  he  did  so,  bringing  in  inside 
of  a  year  so  much  as  to  increase  his  own  salary  and 
the  missionary  gifts  of  the  church  up  to  a  scale  of 
$1,600  a  year.  The  principle  on  which  this  work 
was  done  was  the  frank,  manly  demand,  "  Pay  to 
the  Lord  what  you  owe."  Mr.  Breeze  pressed  this 
demand  so  far  as  to  go  to  Milwaukee  and  pre- 
sent himself  at  the  office  of  the  owner  of  a  farm  in 
his  parish  whose  tenants  worshiped  in  his  church. 
He  was  rewarded  with  a  generous  yearly  contribu- 
tion. 

A  Gift  Bringing  Joy.  Among  his  parishioners 
was  a  poor  washerwoman  who,  when  he  asked  her 
for  a  gift,  burst  into  tears.  Both  she  and  the 
minister  were  from  Wales  and  he  spoke  to  her  in 
the  sweet  tongue  that  touched  her  heart,  telling 


142        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

her  that  he  wanted  her  to  give  out  of  her  poverty, 
and  asking  her  if  she  could  not  give  two  cents  a 
week.  This  she  cheerfully  promised,  and  the  woman 
came  to  church.  Her  glowing  face  and  fervor  in 
the  service,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  was  due  not  to 
his  sermons,  but  to  her  gift,  for  she  knew  that  she 
was  giving  out  of  her  poverty  and  struggle  "  all 
she  had." 

Response  of  Poor  in  St.  George's.  This  is  the 
secret  of  the  administration  of  such  parishes  as  St, 
George's  in  New  York  City,  where  the  poor  have 
been  assembled  in  great  congregations  within  the 
walls  which  before  had  congregations  of  two  or 
three  or  five  families.  At  one  time  this  parish  had 
seven  thousand  members,  twenty-five  hundred  of 
whom  lived  east  of  Second  Avenue,  no  one  hav- 
ing an  income  of  more  than  $15  per  week,  but 
every  member  of  this  church  was  accustomed  to 
give.  If  he  failed  to  put  his  weekly  contribution 
in  the  plate,  he  received  the  same  strict  treatment 
as  the  richer  man  whose  gift  would  seem  more 
desirable.  The  nickels  and  dimes  of  the  very  poor 
were  sought  by  this  parish  with  the  same  thorough- 
ness and  valued  as  highly  as  the  dollars  and  the 
thousands  of  dollars  of  the  few  rich  members  of  the 
parish.  This  is  what  it  means  to  put  a  spiritual 
value  on  money.  The  spiritual  value  is  the  commu- 
nity value.  The  church  is  built  out  of  the  sacred 
income  of  the  poor.  The  income  of  poor  people  is 
always  a  sacred  thing  in  the  religion  of  the  com- 
munity. 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  143 

Church  Budget.  A  big  problem  in  the  religious 
administration  of  the  life  of  poor  people  is  to 
budget  the  church's  financial  burdens  for  the  year 
in  so  far  as  the  policy  of  the  denomination  will  per- 
mit. At  the  beginning  of  any  year  let  the  officers  of 
the  church  find  out  how  much  they  need  for  local 
expenses,  for  benevolences,  and  for  missionary  gifts. 
Let  this  amount  be  distributed  among  the  members 
of  the  church  and  congregation,  assigning  to  each 
one  what  he  probably  ought  to  give,  beginning  with 
the  poorest.  Let  the  whole  congregation  then  be 
canvassed  and  a  contribution  be  secured  from  every 
member.  It  will  be  found  that  the  gifts  of  the  con- 
gregation will  correspond  in  the  total  to  the  amount 
budgeted  by  the  officers,  and  these  gifts  will  come  in 
regularly.  The  congregation  will  respond  to  a 
method  which  respects  them  and  which  unites  them. 

Duplex  Envelope.  For  this  purpose  the  duplex 
envelope  is  excellently  suited.  In  one  small  envelope 
there  are  two  pockets,  one  for  local  support  and  one 
for  benevolences.  The  destination  of  these  gifts 
can  be  printed  on  the  outside;  and  for  greater  con- 
venience, on  the  side  of  the  flap,  in  order  to  avoid 
a  mistake  by  the  giver.  This  envelope  is  to  be 
torn  in  two  and  the  money  for  benevolences  is  given 
to  its  proper  treasurer,  and  that  for  local  support  to 
the  treasurer  of  the  church.  Out  of  this  constant 
stream  of  small  gifts  the  whole  enterprise  of  the 
church  can  be  carried  on  successfully. 

Advantage  of  Budget  System.  One  great  ad- 
vantage of  this  budget  is  that  a  church  cannot  be 


144        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

stampeded  by  some  forcible  speaker.  The  minister 
and  officers  know  what  they  propose  to  do  for  that 
year  and  nomadic  appeals  of  peripatetic  advocates 
of  special  causes  cannot  be  made,  except  to  the 
officers  themselves;  who  can  grant  out  of  the  surplus 
of  their  budget  a  certain  amount.  If  the  giving  of 
the  congregation  is  consolidated,  the  people  are  fed- 
erated in  one  act  of  benevolence.  They  are  being 
trained  in  financing  the  kingdom  of  God.  Their 
prosperity  is  under  one  common  organizing  prin- 
ciple. 

Contributions  According  to  Prosperity.  It  is  es- 
sential to  this  method  that  the  people  give  in  accord- 
ance as  they  "  may  prosper."  The  officers  of  the 
church  are  the  watchful  guardians  of  the  conscience 
of  the  people.  It  is  their  business  to  train  the 
people  in  giving.  They  will  know  who  has  pros- 
pered and  who  has  suffered.  In  their  hands  too, 
as  the  most  fitting  leaders,  is  the  study  of  the 
great  causes  of  the  time  and  the  determination  to 
which  of  them  that  church  shall  give.  Most  peo- 
ple live  their  religious  life  within  the  bounds  of  the 
congregation  in  which  they  worship,  and  the  officers 
become  the  watchmen  on  the  tower  of  Zion,  who 
direct  the  forces  of  the  church  toward  the  great 
enterprises  of  the  Kingdom. 

Ministers  Should  Have  a  Living  Wage.  The 
great  problem  in  this  new  administration  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  people  is  the  supporting  of  minis- 
ters. The  weakness,  especially  of  country  churches, 
is  expressed  in  the  fact  that  the  ministers  have  not 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  145 

enough  to  live  on.  Of  course  there  are  a  few  men 
in  country  churches  who  have  done  heroically 
on  $600  per  year,  but  unfortunately  their  num- 
ber is  very  small.  The  actual  fact  is  that  most 
of  the  men  who  live  on  six  hundred  or  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year  and  who  continue  to  minister 
to  the  same  people  for  as  much  as  five  years,  are,  as 
a  result,  not  highly  efficient.  The  uniting  of 
financial  and  spiritual  genius  in  one  man  is  very 
uncommon.  The  churches  cannot  expect  to  find 
good  ministers  who  could  organize  a  successful 
department  store.  Ministers  in  the  country  ought 
to  have  a  living  wage.  They  have  a  right  to  ask  no 
more,  but  they  have  a  right  to  ask  enough  to  keep 
the  average  man  in  ordinary  comfort  at  the  work 
required  in  that  parish. 

A  Mechanic's  Living  Wage.  Recent  studies  by 
the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  in  New  York  State 
show  that  in  the  smaller  communities  of  that  State  a 
mechanic,  working  at  one  of  the  trades,  can  live 
on  $800  per  year.  In  this  standard  of  living  are 
included  sufficient  food,  housing,  clothing,  medical 
care,  recreation,  and  other  essentials  of  life,  to  keep 
a  family  of  five.  Below  this  amount  it  was  dis- 
covered that  family  life  degenerates,  children  be- 
come sickly,  and  death  comes  too  often  untimely. 
But  at  this  standard  it  is  believed  a  family  of  five 
can  be  expected  to  live. 

Average  Annual  Pastoral  Support.  Our  interest 
here  is  in  the  man  employed  by  a  religious  body, 
namely,  a  minister  of  the  gospel.    Let  us  give  him 


146        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

as  good  a  living  as  a  mechanic  requires  for  bare 
subsistence.  There  are  many  country  churches  that 
do  not  pay  so  much  to  a  minister.  They  may  find, 
if  they  please,  in  this  fact  the  reason  why  their  min- 
isters, if  they  are  young  men,  leave  them  as  soon  as 
their  children  are  born  and  begin  to  cost  money, 
and  why  they  can  only  expect  to  secure  old  men, 
without  families  to  educate.  Such  churches  above 
all  others  need  the  permanent  services  of  ministers 
who  can  live  with  them  at  least  five  years  or  ten, 
and  accomplish  some  cumulative  and  lasting  work. 
Every  church  should  pay  to  its  minister  every  year 
of  his  work  an  amount  sufficient  for  an  average  year 
of  his  life.  No  church  ought  to  take  a  minister  in 
his  cheap  years  and  let  some  other  church  support 
him  in  his  expensive  years.  This  is  the  way  by 
which  country  churches  exact  "  graft  "  of  the  town 
and  city  churches ;  and  the  punishment  they  deserve 
comes  upon  them,  for  they  are  the  weaker  and  the 
town  and  city  churches  are  the  stronger.  The 
strength  of  the  church  is  not  expressed  in  what  the 
minister  gives  it,  but  in  what  it  does  for  him  and 
for  the  Kingdom. 

Cost  of  Keeping  a  Horse.  Taking  now  the  minis- 
ter who  has  as  good  housing  and  clothing  and  food 
and  medical  care  as  a  mechanic,  let  us  see  what  he 
needs  to  do  the  work  that  the  mechanic  is  not  called 
on  to  do.  First  of  all,  he  must  own  a  horse,  which 
will  cost  him  for  keep  $150  per  year.  The  farmer's 
horse  costs  no  such  amount.  A  minister  in  the 
coimtry  had  to  spend  $150  to  $200  every  year  for 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  147 

five  years  to  keep  his  horse.  Except  as  a  means  of 
serving  his  people,  he  had  no  need  of  a  horse.  In 
the  same  parish  he  now  owns  a  farm  on  which  he 
keeps  a  horse ;  and  he  costs  him  from  $25  to  $50  per 
year.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  farmer  in  a  commu- 
nity cannot  understand  why  the  minister's  horse  is 
so  expensive,  for  very  few  farmers  know  that  their 
own  horses  cost  them  anything,  except  the  charge 
by  the  blacksmith.  The  minister  has  to  pay  cash 
for  everything. 

Allowance  for  Books.  Now  let  us  give  this  min- 
ister the  tools  of  his  trade;  namely,  books.  These 
are  as  essential  to  him  as  the  reaper  and  the  hay- 
rake  are  to  the  farmer.  They  have  the  same  place  in 
his  occupation  as  the  corn-planter  has  with  the 
Illinois  farmer.  They  economize  his  work  and  en- 
able him  to  cultivate  the  soil  of  modern  minds.  If 
he  has  not  books,  his  people  will  not  long  hear  him. 
It  is  his  business  to  know  the  books  of  the  world  and 
to  convey  to  his  people  the  great  thoughts  of  great 
souls.  Let  us  give  the  minister,  therefore,  $50  per 
year  for  books.  He  is  a  very  poor  tiller  of  the  souls 
of  his  parish,  if  he  does  not  read  one  book  a  week  at 
a  cost  of  one  dollar  per  week. 

Income  for  Old  Age.  The  income  for  old  age 
should  be  provided  for  in  the  budget  of  a  minister. 
He  must  not  be  looking  out  for  good  investments  or 
spending  his  time  speculating  in  land.  "  They  that 
proclaim  the  gospel  should  live  of  the  gospel."  I  do 
not  think  a  minister  in  a  country  community  ought 
to  be  obliged  to  keep  even  a  garden,  but  that  is  a 


148        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

matter  of  opinion  and  personal  fitness.  It  is  all- 
essential  that  he  should  till  the  soil  of  his  people's 
minds,  and  if  he  does  that,  some  one  else  can  raise 
the  vegetables.  So  that  against  old  age  he  must  be 
protected  by  $100  per  year  in  his  economic  scale, 
from  the  time  of  his  ordination  at  twenty-five  to 
the  day  of  his  retirement  at  sixty-five.  This  invest- 
ment will  support  a  man  and  wife  comfortably  in 
their  declining  years. 

Education  of  Children.  The  children  of  the  min- 
ister should  be  educated  as  well  as  their  parents. 
The  universal  feeling  of  all  kinds  of  folk  is,  that 
their  children  should  be  trained  to  know  as  much  as 
their  parents  and  to  do  as  well.  To  educate  the 
children  of  a  Protestant  minister  will  require  $100 
per  year  for  each  child  from  its  birth  until  it  is 
of  age.  In  our  estimate  let  us  allow  $300  for  the 
average  Protestant  minister's  family. 

Summary  of  Expenditures.  Now  to  add  up  all 
these  details :  $800  enables  the  minister  to  live  as 
well  as  the  working  man  who  can  barely  subsist, 
with  health  and  unimpaired  vigor,  in  the  State  of 
New  York;  $150  for  a  horse;  $50  for  books;  $100 
for  old  age ;  and  $300  for  the  education  of  children, 
we  have  a  total  of  $1,400  per  year. 

Estimate  of  Marriage  Fees  and  Donations.  Al- 
lowance in  this  budget  must  be  made  for  marriage 
fees  and  donations  in  the  minister's  income.  In  the 
country  the  minister  may  receive  from  marriage  fees 
fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  and  from  donations  as 
much  more.     In  a  generous  parish,  where  many 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  149 

farmers  not  members  of  any  church  desire  to  con- 
tribute to  the  minister's  living,  the  total  of  these 
donations  in  a  year  amounted  to  $40.  The  diffi- 
culty in  reckoning  such  gifts  in  the  budget  is  that 
year  by  year  as  farming  becomes  more  systematic 
their  total  amount  decreases.  Though  the  number 
of  donations  is  as  great  as  ever,  their  value  to  the 
minister  is  much  less  than  of  old.  Moreover,  the 
donation  is  a  tradition,  but  country  life  has  many 
new  families  who  do  not  know  the  old  ways,  and 
they  give  nothing.  I  would  estimate,  therefore,  the 
donations  and  marriage  fees  at  a  sum  not  in  excess 
of  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
per  year.  There  is  no  recorded  instance  in  which  the 
donations  and  fees  have  been  so  large  in  recent 
years  as  to  detain  a  minister  in  the  country  when 
his  salary  was  insufficient  for  his  support. 

No  Allowance  for  Travel.  If  he  makes  no  in- 
vestments and  secures  wealth  from  no  other  source, 
as  he  should  not  do,  if  he  is  dependent  upon  his  peo- 
ple to  whom  he  ministers  in  spiritual  things,  $1,400 
is  what  he  actually  spends  year  after  year  if  he  keeps 
a  horse,  uses  books,  has  three  children,  and  grows 
old  in  serving  a  country  parish.  This  allows  noth- 
ing for  travel,  nothing  for  cultivating  those  sources 
of  thought  and  feeling  which  will  be  helpful  to  his 
people  through  the  attendance  upon  conventions  and 
other  public  gatherings.  But  he  is  doing  work  that 
costs  him  year  after  year  the  amount  named.  Now 
it  is  the  difference  between  this  amount  and  the 
average  country  minister's  salary  that  is  the  main 


150        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

cause  for  the  constant  movement  of  country  min- 
isters from  place  to  place. 

Motives  that  Cause  Changes.  The  one  motive 
which  above  all  other  things  causes  him  "  to  seek  a 
new  call "  is  the  desire  to  educate  his  children,  and 
to  secure  enough  to  live  on.  The  anxiety  in  regard 
to  old  age  is  an  increasing  force  in  this  dire  process, 
as  years  pass;  and  when  the  minister  comes  to  be 
forty  he  adopts  new  measures  for  the  years  which  he 
sees  before  him  of  declining  power  and  efficiency. 
It  is  useless  to  argue  that  ministers  should  live  on 
less.  The  important  thing  is  to  provide  that  which 
will  enable  them,  and  will  content  them,  to  live  in 
country  places.  The  experience  of  the  churches 
shows  that  in  country  communities  where  the  min- 
ister is  sufficiently  well  paid  a  sufficient  supply  of 
good  men  can  always  be  secured  and  retained. 

Farmers  More  Prosperous.  The  importance  of 
this  matter  grows  upon  modern  people  with  the 
increasing  prosperity  of  country  communities. 
Farmers  who  have  tilled  the  soil  with  difficulty  and 
made  a  poor  living  for  a  good  part  of  a  lifetime, 
have  in  recent  years  largely  prospered.  "  I  have 
made  more  money  in  the  past  three  years  than  in  all 
my  farming  before,"  said  a  farmer  of  forty-four 
years  of  age  recently,  and  all  over  the  United  States 
farmers  are  facing  the  better  prospect  which  is  be- 
fore their  industry. 

Scientific  Management  will  Increase  Profits. 
Moreover  the  methods  made  valuable  from  scientific 
agriculture  are  now  seen  to  contain  vast  potential 


THOROUGHBRED  STOCK  ON  A  MODERN  FARM 


Poverty  and  Prosperity  151 

wealth  for  the  farmer.  Depleted  soils  are  being  re- 
stored, and  although  a  period  of  poverty  and  strug- 
gle will  be  necessary  in  restoring  them,  their  future 
is  one  of  great  wealth,  and  permanent  tillage  of 
these  soils  under  scientific  management  promises 
cumulative  gains.  Cooperation  among  farmers  is 
seen  to  be  profitable.  Some  of  those  who  are  co- 
operating in  America  are  so  prosperous  that  their 
leaders  fear  for  the  result.  I  would  not  exaggerate 
this  prosperity,  for  I  know  that  it  has  sharp  limita- 
tions at  present,  but  we  know  the  way  by  which  the 
farmer  shall  prosper  in  the  future.  Already  many 
have  realized  great  gains.  The  consecration  of  this 
prosperity  is  the  immediate  task  of  the  country 
Church. 

Message  in  Terms  of  Experience.  We  are  in  the 
midst  of  a  period  of  speculative  farming.  This 
means  the  turning  of  agricultural  values  for  the 
time  being  into  cash,  the  buying  and  selling  of  many 
farms,  and  the  redistribution  of  land.  Let  us  under- 
stand this  process  and  speak  to  the  present-day 
countryman  in  terms  of  his  own  immediate  experi- 
ence. Only  thus  will  we  minister  to  him  in  the 
things  of  God.  Like  the  old  evangelist,  let  the  mod- 
ern church  "  speak  to  their  condition." 

Rural  Population  Decreasing.  Life  in  the  open 
country  will  always  be  attenuated  so  far  as  we  can 
now  see.  Indeed,  there  are  those  who  say  that  the 
country  should  be  robbed  of  its  institutions  and  the 
life  of  country  people  centered  in  the  towns.  This 
I  do  not  believe,  but  there  is  no  evidence  at  present 


152        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

of  an  increase  of  the  country  population.  The  rural 
exodus  is  still  going  on  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  such 
observers  as  L.  H.  Bailey  that  it  will  continue  even 
further  to  diminish  the  numbers  of  people  in  the 
country.  Among  them  the  institutions  will  be  few, 
but  they  ought  to  be  powerful. 

Magnify  the  Church.  The  Church  and  the  school 
must  always  be  in  the  country,  if  the  people  are 
there.  All  the  greater  should  be  the  Church  and  all 
the  more  influential  the  school.  The  life  of  com- 
mon folk  in  the  laborious  and  difficult  task  of  suc- 
cessful agriculture  should  be  dignified  with  great 
and  beautiful  churches.  Magnify  the  Church. 
Write  its  name  large,  not  small.  Think  of  it  in 
terms  of  the  whole  community.  Make  it  the  dig- 
nifying building  in  the  whole  landscape  of  country 
life.  Put  the  leadership  of  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
strongest  men  and  furnish  them  with  the  fuel  for 
their  fires  and  the  oil  for  their  engines.  Assemble 
the  people  in  great  congregations,  not  in  small,  and 
make  the  Church  the  expression  of  the  large  things 
in  the  life  of  the  people,  a  contrast  very  often  to 
many  of  the  detailed  and  intricate  and  annoying 
trifles  which  wear  the  life  out  of  the  farmer.  Let 
the  Church  express  the  idealism  of  the  farmer,  and 
in  order  to  do  this  the  leading  people  of  the  country 
community  must  give  very  largely  of  their  means 
and  all  the  people  of  the  community  must  con- 
secrate unto  the  Lord  what  they  have  to  give,  as 
he  has  prospered  them. 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  SERVICE 


f/ 


The  ideal  solution  of  the  country  Church  problem  is  to  have  in 
each  rural  community  one  strong  church  adequately  supported,  prop- 
erly equipped,  ministered  to  by  an  able  man — a  church  which  leads  in 
community  service.  The  path  to  the  realization  of  such  an  ideal 
is  rough  and  thorny.  Church  federation,  however,  promises  large 
results  in  this  direction  and  should  be  especially  encouraged.  .  .  . 
Furthermore,  there  is  supreme  necessity  for  adding  dignity  to  the 
country  parish.  Too  often  at  present  the  rural  parish  is  regarded 
either  as  a  convenient  laboratory  for  the  clerical  novice,  or  as  an 
asylum  for  the  decrepit  or  ineflScient.  The  country  parish  must  be 
a  parish  for  our  ablest  and  strongest.  The  ministry  of  the  most 
Christlike  must  be  to  the  hill  towns  of  Galilee  as  well  as  to 
Jerusalem. — K.   L.   Butterfield 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  philanthropy  is  the  chief  medicine  for  the 
social  ill  health  of  the  country.  The  intelligent  student  who  pos- 
sesses the  true  spirit  of  helpfulness  may  find  in  the  rural  problem 
ample  scope  for  both  his  brain  and  his  heart.  But  he  will  make  a 
fundamental  and  irreparable  error  if  he  starts  out  with  the  notion 
that  pity,  charity,  and  direct  gifts  win  the  day.  You  may  flatter 
the  American  farmer;  you  cannot  patronize  him.  He  demands  and 
needs,  not  philanthropy,  but  simple  justice,  equal  opportunity,  and 
better  facilities  for  education.  He  is  neither  slave  nor  pauper. — 
K.  L.   ButteiHeld 


154 


VII 

THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  SERVICE 

Social  Service  Defined.  After  one  of  the  great 
Protestant  bodies  had  determined  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  social  service  as  its  ideal  for  the  future,  and 
had  passed  the  most  elaborate  statements,  calling 
upon  all  its  people  to  engage  in  social  service,  the 
presiding  officer  turned  to  a  friend  and  said,  "  What 
is  social  service  ?  "  The  answer  to  this  question  is 
the  present  task  of  the  Christian  student  and  worker. 
Social  service  is  the  ministry  of  a  man,  or  group 
of  men  to  a  society.  It  may  not  be  social  service 
to  lift  a  man  who  has  fallen.  It  is  not  social  service 
to  lend  money  to  a  poor  acquaintance.  Such  acts 
are  personal  services.  Altruism  is  not  social  serv- 
ice. There  are  many  personal  services  rendered  in 
the  world  in  which  Christian  folk  are  well  trained, 
and  an  atmosphere  of  genial  altruism  prevails  in  our 
time.  It  is  an  enjoyable  experience  to  give  a  little 
money  to  a  beggar.  People  in  the  cities  have  to  be 
trained  and  educated  to  resist  the  impulse  to  give 
in  a  random  way  to  individuals  in  apparent  need. 
This,  however,  is  not  social  service.  We  are  con- 
fronted with  needy  societies  of  men.  Of  course  I 
do  not  mean  lodges,  or  clubs,  or  other  artificial  or- 

155 


156        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ganizations,  but  essential  and  instinctive  societies, 
in  which  the  life  of  men  is  immersed. 

Service  of  Groups.  As  the  fish  lives  in  the  pond 
or  as  the  apple  lives  on  the  tree,  so  every  man  lives 
in  a  society.  The  smallest  society  of  all  is  the  house- 
hold, and  the  greatest  is  the  nation.  Cities  are  socie- 
ties, and  the  country  community  is  a  society,  because 
in  it  an  individual  can  pass  the  round  of  his  life 
from  birth  to  death.  Social  service  is  usually  an  act 
of  an  organization  or  group  of  men.  An  individual 
alone  is  usually  inadequate  to  serve  a  society.  He 
must  have  the  support  and  allegiance  of  others  in  an 
organized  group.  For  this  reason  men  organize 
churches,  charities,  schools,  and  city  governments, 
in  order  that  groups  of  men  may  through  team- 
work minister  to  societies.  The  school-teacher  who 
comes  into  a  community  serves  through  an  organ- 
ization, and  represents  a  group  of  people  devoted 
to  the  problem  of  education.  The  pastor  who  min- 
isters to  a  country  community  is  strengthened  by  the 
allegiance  of  his  fellow-officers  and  of  the  denomi- 
nation behind  him,  of  which  the  symbols  are  in  his 
ordination  and  installation.  They  fortify  him  for 
his  service  and  his  leadership  of  that  people. 

Serving  Marginal  People.  To  serve  a  society  is 
not  a  quantitative  matter.  It  is  not  like  packing  ap- 
ples, or  shoveling  coal,  in  which  every  apple  and 
every  lump  of  coal  must  be  handled  uniformly.  The 
first  thing  to  learn  in  social  service  is  selection. 
Most  of  the  people  in  a  society  do  not  need  to  be 
approached.     We  serve  a  society  by  helping  the 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  CAZENOVIA,  XEW  YORK 
DR.    PERSONS,    THE    PASTOR,    REACHES    THE    COUNTRY    SECTIONS    BY 

EVANGELISM 


The  Principle  of  Service  157 

marginal  people  in  that  society,  to  help  whom  is  the 
benefit  of  all.  These  are  the  children  and  youth, 
the  working  men,  the  "  renters,"  and  in  general,  the 
poor,  the  sick,  and  those  who  are  about  to  die.  Mar- 
ginal people  are  the  people  on  the  edge  of  the  so- 
ciety, who  must  struggle  to  maintain  themselves  in 
it.  Those  who  are  well-to-do  or  well  fixed  do  not 
need  to  be  served.  It  is  their  business  to  support 
the  community  leader :  and  if  he  makes  good  among 
marginal  people,  they  will  gladly  sustain  him.  For 
social  instinct  and  a  sense  of  social  unity  com- 
mand them. 

The  Marginal  Conscience.  All  organized  things 
are  valued  by  their  marginal  parts.  The  economists 
say  that  wages  are  fixed  in  every  scale  of  pay  by 
estimating  the  value  to  the  employer  of  the  last 
man  he  hires,  the  man  who  is  just  productive  enough 
to  stay  in  the  shop.  Other  men  who  produce  more 
create  the  employer's  profit,  but  they  get  no  more 
pay  than  the  man  whose  work  is  just  good  enough  to 
be  tolerated.  He  is  the  marginal  man  in  the  fac- 
tory. The  same  applies  in  moral  and  spiritual  af- 
fairs. The  working  man  or  half-grown  boy  in  the 
town  has  the  marginal  conscience  of  the  town.  His 
ways  of  looking  at  things  are  the  most  contagious, 
arid  his  experiences  are  the  common  experiences  of 
the  town;  he  has  the  price  mark  on  him. 

General  Application  of  Principle.  This  principle 
has  a  very  general  application.  If  you  are  going  to 
paint  a  view  of  the  ocean,  you  will  sit  down  on  the 
shore  and  picture  on  your  canvas  the  margin  of  the 


158         The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ocean.  There  are  only  a  very  few  pictures  of  the 
ocean  that  represent  the  waves  as  seen  from  a  ship. 
The  literature  of  love  represents  marginal  love,  the 
affection  of  those  about  to  be  married.  There  are 
very  few  books  on  the  profound  and  vital  experi- 
ences of  married  folk.  The  State  has  to  deal  with 
conduct  on  its  margins,  where  orderly  behavior 
breaks  down  in  crime.  The  State  has  very  little  to 
do  with  well-behaved  people,  but  with  those  who 
get  into  trouble  the  State  deals  by  means  of  the 
policeman  and  the  court.  The  public  values  learn- 
ing, not  by  the  few  men  who  are  encyclopedic,  but 
the  common  measure  of  learning  is  in  the  amount 
that  an  ordinary  student  can  master.  The  unit  of 
measure  in  education  is  the  student,  not  the  pro- 
fessor. Industry  is  valued  in  the  churches  of  our 
time,  not  any  longer  in  terms  of  millionaires  or  any 
other  rich  men,  but  of  the  working  man.  The  prob- 
lem of  industrial  life  for  which  the  public  cares  is 
the  problem  of  the  poor.  This  was  not  always  so. 
The  difference  is  in  this,  that  in  former  times  we 
had  plenty  and  there  need  be  none  poor.  In  our 
day  we  are  confronted  with  a  struggle  for  sub- 
sistence on  the  part  of  most  of  our  people. 

Christ  and  Marginal  People.  The  central  con- 
cern of  society,  under  the  influence  of  Christ,  is 
with  those  people  who  have  the  struggle.  Christ 
always  worked  among  the  poor,  and  endured  much 
opposition  in  order  to  do  so.  He  clearly  under- 
stood what  he  was  about.  His  policy  was  deliber- 
ate.   When  the  excellent  people  of  his  time,  good 


The  Principle  of  Service  159 

substantial  Pharisees,  whose  lives  were  orderly  and 
comfortable,  objected  to  his  selection  of  marginal 
people  as  his  daily  companions,  he  defended  him- 
self. He  interpreted  social  service,  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  Luke,  in  three  short  stories.  He  de- 
clared that  these  illustrate  the  mind  of  God.  Each 
of  them  is  a  story  about  a  little  society,  and  he  de- 
clared that  the  marginal  unit  set  the  value  on  all  the 
other  units  in  the  society. 

Principles  Illustrated.  One  society  was  a  flock 
of  sheep.  He  declared  that  when  one  sheep  is  lost 
the  value  of  all  the  rest  is  measured  in  the  shep- 
herd's mind  by  the  lost  one,  and  he  takes  no  rest 
until  he  has  found  the  marginal  sheep.  In  the 
household  the  savings  of  the  mother  were  ten  pieces 
of  money.  When  she  lost  one  she  set  no  store  by 
the  others  until  she  found  that  one.  Their  value 
was  measured  in  her  mind  by  the  one  marginal 
piece.  The  third  society  was  a  gentleman's  estate, 
and  the  whole  story  of  this  house  is  expressed  in 
the  prodigal  conduct  of  one  of  the  sons.  In  the 
mind  of  the  father  nothing  else  was  of  concern 
until  his  boy  who  was  lost  was  found.  The  heart 
of  the  family  estimated  all  things  by  the  marginal 
son. 

Organizations  for  Children  and  Youth.  In  early 
country  life  in  America  there  were  no  marginal 
people,  because  there  was  no  organic  society. 
Household  farming  was  the  beginning  of  organ- 
ized country  life.  In  that  day  everybody  had  land. 
The  service  of  the  Church  must  be  not  to  the  poor, 


l6o        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

for  there  should  be  no  poor — people  who  were  in 
need  were  supposed  to  be  shiftless.  The  Church 
therefore  organized  its  ministries  to  the  children 
knd  adolescent  youth  of  the  households.  That 
period  from  1800  to  1890  was  the  classic  period 
in  the  development  in  American  churches  of  Sun- 
day-schools, which  culminated  in  the  young  people's 
societies  of  Christian  Endeavor,  Baptist  Unions, 
Epworth  Leagues,  and  similar  organizations  ex- 
pressive of  the  Church's  joy  in  her  young  people. 
It  was  an  organization  of  marginal  people  under 
the  shelter  of  the  Church,  but  they  were  the  mar- 
ginal people  of  the  household  societies. 

Church  Facing  New  Problems.  In  the  past 
twenty  years  the  churches  have  become  concerned 
about  communities.  Without  forgetting  the  house- 
hold, the  heart  of  the  Church  has  been  enlarged  to 
take  in  a  whole  community.  In  the  open  country 
speculative  farming  has  seriously  affected  the  house- 
hold. It  has  prepared  the  way  for  community  life. 
A  new  figure  has  come  into  the  concern  of  the 
Church  in  our  day.  In  the  cities  the  churches  are 
facing  the  working  man  and  his  problems.  In  the 
country  the  churches  are  confronted  with  the  tenant 
farmer.  These  are  new  types  of  households  in  the 
country.  They  look  upon  life  in  the  marginal  way. 
They  are  as  different  from  landowners  and  from 
the  owners  in  business  as  children  are  from  parents 
or  as  the  youth  is  from  the  elderly  man.  They  are 
the  marginal  people,  whom  to  serve  is  to  serve  the 
whole  community. 


The  Principle  of  Service  i6i 

Ministering  in  Common  Things.  The  great  dan- 
ger of  the  teacher,  the  pastor,  the  churchworker,  is 
that  he  will  be  too  nice,  too  scholastic,  and  too  much 
concerned  with  rare  and  curious  things.  Service  of 
the  commimity  is  concerned  with  common  things. 
These  common  things  make  up  the  life  of  marginal 
people.  The  church  visitor  goes  to  a  mechanic's 
household,  talks  about  children,  sickness,  wages,  old 
age,  savings,  love  and  hate  and  fear,  and  other  great 
common  experiences  of  mankind.  When  she  goes 
to  the  home  of  a  wealthy  man  for  dinner  the  con- 
versation is  about  automobiles,  aeroplanes,  foreign 
travel,  the  latest  books,  rare  furniture,  paintings, 
fine  linen,  and  fashions.  These  are  all  rare  and  curi- 
ous things.  The  reason  why  we  incline  to  talk  about 
them  is  partly  in  the  fact  that  they  are  uncommon, 
and  most  people  do  not  have  access  to  them.  Man 
inclines  to  have  things  peculiar  to  himself  and 
his  little  set  of  folk. 

Jesus  Ministered  to  Poor.  But  in  the  rich  man's 
house  the  things  of  concern  in  the  poor  man's  house 
are  also  talked  about.  These  are  common  experi- 
ences. Everything  said  at  the  poor  man's  table  has 
equal  value  at  the  rich  man's  table,  because  sickness 
and  children  and  old  age  and  hate  and  fear  and  love 
are  common  human  experiences.  The  life  of  the 
poor  man  is  made  up  of  common  things,  the  things 
which  are  universal,  because  the  poor  man  is  the 
marginal  man.  He  has  the  moral  and  spiritual  price 
mark  on  him.  He  is  the  standard  of  human  value. 
That  is  the  reason  why  Jesus  devoted  his  life  to 


l62        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  poor,  because  by  working  for  the  poor  he  could 
work  for  all  mankind.  Whatever  is  done  in  terms 
of  the  common,  that  is,  marginal  life,  is  done  for 
the  whole  community. 

Service  to  Landless  People.  In  the  period  of 
speculative  farming  the  marginal  people  are  the 
poor.  Capital  is  the  determining  standard  and  the 
people  without  capital  are  on  the  margin  of  society. 
The  man  who  would  serve  the  community  in  a 
region  in  which  farms  are  being  bought  and  sold 
should  apply  his  ministry  to  those  who  are  without 
land  and  without  capital,  because  by  ministering  to 
them  he  will  serve  the  whole  community.  Moreover 
his  service  to  them  should  be  in  the  terms  of  their 
own  life.  If  he  would  reach  them,  he  must  help 
them  to  make  money  and  to  use  mone}'^  in  helpful 
and  Christian  ways. 

Example  of  Wisconsin  Minister.  A  minister  in 
Wisconsin,  whose  preparation  had  included  some 
years  as  detective,  to  the  sharpening  of  his  wits  and 
the  increasing  of  his  resources,  had  become  the  pas- 
tor of  a  community  of  railroad  men  and  farmers. 
Suddenly  by  the  fiat  of  the  railroad,  hundreds  of 
his  parishioners  moved  away  in  a  day,  leaving  the 
church  and  the  school  and  the  store  in  a  depleted 
community  robbed  of  more  than  one  half  its 
strength.  Mr.  Martin  turned  to  the  farming  of  the 
land  himself.  Realizing  that  his  parishioners  were 
now  only  farmers,  he  led  them  in  the  tillage  of  the 
soil,  setting  the  example  to  encourage  those  who 
were  likely  to  despair.    By  his  leadership  the  owners 


The  Principle  of  Service  163 

of  a  pickle  factory  were  induced  to  build  a  plant  in 
the  community,  and  farmers  were  persuaded  to 
undertake  the  raising  of  cucumbers  on  a  large  scale. 
He  assembled  the  farmers,  and  persuaded  them,  with 
the  storekeeper,  to  transform  the  store  into  a  co- 
operative enterprise,  with  a  capital  of  $12,000,  dis- 
tributed in  one  hundred  and  twenty  shares.  On 
this  capital  interest  is  paid  not  to  exceed  six  per 
cent.,  and  the  surplus  profit  of  the  store,  in  which 
the  storekeeper  owns  ten  shares,  is  distributed 
equally  among  the  farmers  according  to  the  size 
of  their  accounts.  This  community  has  been  re- 
juvenated by  the  leadership  of  a  man  who  was  un- 
willing that  a  change  in  the  market  should  ruin  the 
community. 

Pastors  and  Scientific  Farming.  In  the  days  of 
organized  farming  the  margin  of  service  is  shifted 
to  the  farmer  who  is  learning  the  science  of  agri- 
culture. The  community  leader  ministers  to  these 
in  terms  of  better  farming.  By  means  of  improved 
agriculture  they  are  to  survive  in  the  community, 
and  the  service  to  these  people  on  the  margin  of 
the  community  is  in  training  them  to  till  the  land 
by  modern  science.  Such  social  service  as  this  was 
demanded  by  ex-Governor  Beaver  of  Pennsylvania 
in  a  public  address.  "  The  trouble  with  the  country 
minister  is  that  he  does  not  know  how  to  farm.  The 
old-style  preachers  could  farm  and  did  farm.  They 
taught  their  people  how  to  farm  the  land.  The 
theological  seminaries  should  so  train  the  minister 
that  he  would  know  how  to  bore  a  hole  in  the 


164        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

ground  and  see  whether  that  spot  would  do  for  the 
planting  of  a  Baldwin  apple-tree." 

Ministry  in  Social  Terms.  Near  Albion,  New 
-York,  in  the  great  apple  country,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Hares  has  extended  the  service  of  his  church  to  the 
people  of  the  whole  community.  Like  every  other 
successful  act,  it  is  difficult  to  analyze,  but  the  obvi- 
ous thing  is  that  the  people  of  the  community  have 
been  united  through  a  ministry  to  the  young  people 
and  the  working  people.  The  church  is  thronged 
with  gatherings  at  which  all  are  present.  The  pro- 
grams of  these  social  meetings  are  musical,  literary, 
recreative,  and  they  appeal  to  the  mind  which  in  that 
community  is  marginal.  For  the  trouble  in  that 
great,  rich  apple  country  is  lack  of  social  life  which 
will  make  the  country  worth  while.  There  is  plenty 
of  money,  but  little  motive  for  workingmen  or  for 
the  youth  of  the  community  to  remain  out  in  the 
country  where  the  money  is  made.  The  service  of 
this  church  is  founded  in  a  ministry  to  the  whole 
community  in  social  terms,  and  its  results  are  gath- 
lered  in  religious  union  and  spiritual  gains. 

Ministry  in  Economic  Terms.  Professor  L.  H. 
Bailey  of  Cornell  University  says  that  the  best  sys- 
tem of  cooperative  creameries  in  the  United  States 
is  in  Minnesota,  and  it  was  the  work  of  a  country 
minister.  Ministers  who  are  so  helping  the  com- 
munity as  this  one  are  able  to  command  the  re- 
ligious forces  of  the  community,  because  they  serve 
the  marginal  needs  of  the  community.  The  Minne- 
sota parish  of  which  this  man  was  minister  was 


The  Principle  of  Service  165 

suffering  from  the  poverty  under  which  the  milk 
farmer  must  labor.  Under  his  guidance  they  were 
lifted  out  of  this  condition  and  their  example  has 
been  widely  followed  throughout  the  State.  Each 
of  these  cases  serves  to  illustrate  the  principle  of 
selection,  by  which  social  service  shall  be  successful. 
That  principle  is  that,  to  serve  the  whole  commu- 
nity, a  man  or  woman  must  bestow  his  life  upon 
those  who,  being  helped,  will  benefit  the  whole 
community. 

Duty  of  Evangelism.  True  evangelism  is  an  ex- 
pression of  this  principle,  but  much  evangelism  ig- 
nores it.  In  the  open  country  the  village  church 
has  the  duty  of  evangelism.  The  people  of  the  vil- 
lage church  cannot  have  the  same  influence  in  the 
country  as  country  people  can  have,  and  their  pastor,^ 
as  a  rule,  cannot  be  a  pastor  of  country  people  if  he 
does  not  live  among  them.  All  the  more  clearly  is 
his  duty  as  an  evangelist  seen. 

Ministry  in  Evangelism.  The  Rev.  Clair  S. 
Adams,  "  the  little  minister,"  of  Bement,  Illinois, 
has  five  out-stations  from  his  church  in  the  town. 
Against  the  affectionate  protest  of  his  people  he  has 
gone  on  a  wide  circuit  for  several  years  past,  and 
has  bound  up  into  one  great  parish  a  number  of 
school  districts,  abandoned  churches,  and  neglected 
fields.  The  invitations  to  him  for  further  work  of 
this  sort  are  more  than  he  is  able  to  meet.  Mr. 
Adams  is  a  man  of  fine  evangelistic  spirit ;  while  at 
the  same  time  a  sociological  student  and  worker  of 
ripe  experience.     In  his  preaching,  out  in  the  coun- 


1 66         The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

try,  he  preaches  the  conversion  of  the  soul.  Fre- 
quent revivals  attend  his  ministry,  throughout  the 
whole  region.  His  devoted  assistant,  Miss  Bowen, 
is  of  the  same  spirit,  and  her  work  has  been  hon- 
ored by  the  courts,  in  her  appointment  as  probation 
officer  throughout  this  region.  A  finer  example 
could  not  be  had  of  the  ministry  of  a  village  church, 
through  its  workers,  to  the  margin  of  a  great  farm- 
ing community. 

Example  of  Dr.  Persons.  At  Cazenovia,  New 
York,  Dr.  Silas  E.  Persons  has  in  the  same  way 
yoked  up  the  country  districts  with  his  town  church. 
In  the  town  he  is  a  pastor:  in  the  country  he  is  an 
evangelist.  The  preaching  of  a  simple  gospel  of  re- 
pentance and  salvation  characterizes  the  occasional 
visits  to  the  country,  in  which  he  cannot  render  the 
elaborate  and  detailed  service  of  a  resident  pastor. 
But  in  these  neglected  and  remote  districts  this  is 
precisely  the  service  needed.  Dr.  Persons  is  con- 
vinced of  the  great  value  of  evangelism  to  the  people 
on  the  outer  rim  of  the  town.  They  are  marginal 
people  to  the  town  market,  to  the  social  life,  and  to 
the  churches  of  the  town.  To  them  evangelism  is 
the  proper  marginal  service. 

Secret  of  Sunday's  Success.  Evangelism,  if  it 
be  obedient  to  this  principle  of  social  service,  must 
interpret  the  people  on  the  margin  of  the  community 
in  their  own  terms.  The  Rev.  "  Billy  "  Sunday  is 
a  noted  figure  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Middle 
West.  His  meetings  are  triumphantly  successful 
in  manv  industrial  centers.    No  one  need  defend  the 


D      O 


The  Principle  of  Service  167 

violations  of  good  taste  of  which  he  is  accused. 
My  purpose  here  is  to  say  that  his  success  seems  to 
be  based  on  his  knowledge  of  the  thought  and  feel- 
ing of  the  working  people  of  the  towns.  He  knows 
how  to  talk  their  language.  He  has  been  a  man  of 
the  street,  a  ball  player,  and  remains  still  at  heart  a 
marginal  man.  There  is  nothing  nice  or  proper 
about  him.  There  is  everything  vigorous,  hearty, 
and  zealous.  The  result  is  that  his  meetings  are 
thronged  with  the  very  people  who  live  on  the  mar- 
gin of  these  communities.  Working  men  without 
capital,  laborers  who  do  not  own  their  tools,  renters 
who  do  not  own  the  land  they  till,  all  come  to 
his  meetings.  The  striking  thing  is  that,  while  his 
violence  of  language  frequently  offends  the  well-to- 
do  people  of  the  community,  he  always  attracts 
them  to  the  meetings  before  the  series  is  over.  Con- 
spicuous among  his  most  thorough  converts  are  peo- 
ple who  are  central  to  the  life  of  the  community, 
lawyers,  delicate  women,  owners  of  large  business 
plants,  and  occasionally  he  makes  a  convert  of  an 
exquisite  preacher. 

A  Young  College  Graduate's  Achievement.  In 
the  middle  of  Illinois  there  is  a  farming  community, 
centering  in  a  hamlet,  where  for  thirty  years  there 
had  been  no  religious  service.  A  student  graduating 
from  college  spent  the  summer  on  his  father's  farm 
and  began  to  hold  meetings  assisted  by  the  young 
people  of  his  church,  in  this  neglected  neighbor- 
hood, which  was  the  common  margin  of  three  or 
four  surrounding  towns.     His  work  was  attended 


1 68         The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

with  extraordinary  results,  and  within  a  year  a 
chapel  was  erected,  comfortable  and  ample  for  the 
seating  of  two  hundred  people,  and  the  gratitude  of 
the  neighborhood  was  expressed  in  a  stained-glass 
window,  in  which  they  insisted  on  placing  his 
name.  They  call  it  the  Lin  Hurie  Chapel.  His 
work  had  the  extraordinary  value  that  religious 
service  has  to  the  margin  of  community  life. 

The  Ministry  of  a  Gentle  Woman.  In  1907  the 
Committee  on  Morals  and  Rural  Conditions,  of  the 
Congregational  Conference  of  Massachusetts,  whose 
duties  were  to  evangelize  as  well  as  to  study  the 
neglected  regions  lying  between  the  towns  of  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  State,  requested  the  appointment 
of  a  woman  for  this  work.  Miss  Anna  B.  Taft 
had  that  year  attended  the  Silver  Bay  Conference 
of  the  Missionary  Education  Movement  and  had 
been  inspired  with  a  desire  to  serve  in  some  definite 
capacity  for  the  people  near  her  home.  She  was  em- 
ployed for  this  work,  and  entered  upon  two  years 
of  devoted  service,  with  constantly  increasing  influ- 
ence, to  the  marginal  people  of  Massachusetts.  Her 
growing  influence  and  usefulness  were  due,  not 
merely  to  her  gentle  breeding  and  capacity  for 
abundance  of  work,  but  in  part  to  the  exceptional 
value  of  her  religious  ministry  to  marginal  people. 

"  Brush  Arbor  "  Churches.  In  Tennessee,  Ken- 
tucky, Missouri,  and  other  States  of  the  Southwest, 
churches  are  very  often  founded  as  "  brush  arbor  " 
churches,  a  meeting  being  appointed  in  a  neighbor- 
hood   where    there    is    no   "  church-house."     The 


The  Principle  of  Service  169 

"  brush  arbor  "  is  made  in  a  grove  of  trees.  Fasten- 
ing rude  timbers  overhead  from  tree  to  tree,  and 
driving  poles  in  the  ground,  where  necessary  for  a 
support,  a  roof  is  made  by  rudely  thatching  the  area 
with  boughs  cut  from  trees.  Thus  the  people  are 
protected  from  the  sun  and  in  some  degree  from 
rain.  These  "  brush  arbor  "  churches  will  seat  five 
hundred  people  on  occasion.  The  seats  are  made, 
as  the  other  furniture,  by  driving  stakes  in  the 
ground  for  the  support  of  planks  on  which  the  peo- 
ple sit.  It  is  said  by  superintendents  of  churches  in 
this  section  that  many  of  the  best  churches  in  the 
Southwest  grew  out  of  "  brush  arbor  "  beginnings. 
This  is  a  method  which  explores  the  margin  of  re- 
ligious organization  and  is  eminently  well  suited 
to  the  open  country  and  the  temperate  climate  of 
the  southwestern  States. 

Enterprising  Village  Blacksmith.  At  Florida, 
New  York,  the  old  church  of  the  farmers  is  matched 
now  by  a  church  of  Roman  Catholic  Poles.  The 
old  Protestant  folk  are  slowly  losing  ground:  the 
Poles  are  rapidly  gaining.  The  Poles  are  indus- 
trious, thrifty,  and  far-sighted  in  their  farming. 
The  Presbyterians  are  inclined  to  abandon  the  farm 
for  the  life  of  the  cities,  but  in  the  old  church  is  a 
brotherhood  of  men  who  under  the  leadership  of  the 
town  blacksmith,  a  man  who  has  had  the  same  shop 
in  the  village  for  over  fifty  years,  have  undertaken 
community  enterprises.  The  success  in  these  enter- 
prises is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  serve  marginal 
needs  of  the  community. 


I70        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Streets  Lighted  and  Bank  Organized.  The  first 
move  was  to  light  the  streets  of  the  town.  Much 
discomfort  and  some  disorder  had  resulted  from 
dark  streets.  The  whole  village  united  in  the  enter- 
prise of  lighting  it,  and  has  shared  the  common 
benefit.  The  second  enterprise  formed  by  this 
brotherhood  was  the  floating  of  a  bank  in  the  village. 
The  saloonkeeper  had  been  the  banker,  and  the  work- 
ing men  of  the  town  had  been  obliged  to  pay  him  a 
heavy  tax  for  the  cashing  of  checks.  When  the  men 
of  the  Presbyterian  church  proposed  a  bank  they  got 
the  allegiance  for  the  first  time  of  the  Polish  Catho- 
lics, who  voted  solidly,  with  their  priest  at  their  head, 
in  favor  of  the  bank  at  the  popular  meeting  called 
by  the  brotherhood.  Both  these  enterprises  were 
on  the  margin  of  the  town's  needs.  These  older 
citizens  studied  the  community  as  a  whole,  and 
served  all  by  supplying  those  needs  which  were 
most  felt  by  the  working  people  and  the  young 
people  of  the  town. 

Immigrants  are  Marginal  People.  The  immi- 
grant is  marginal  to  American  communities.  What- 
ever is  done  for  him,  since  he  helps  the  community 
to  earn  their  living,  will  benefit  the  whole  commu- 
nity. He  has  come  to  stay.  His  life  is  big  with 
future  possibilities.  They  who  would  minister  to 
the  whole  community  must  minister  to  him.  This 
subject  is  itself  great  enough  for  a  volume,  but  I 
will  indicate  briefly  the  forms  of  ministry  to  the 
immigrant  which  are  adapted  to  his  marginal 
needs. 


-'  j 


The  Principle  of  Service  171 

A  Welcome  to  Italians.  It  should  be  a  service  of 
Americans  to  foreigners.  Important  as  the  foreign 
speech  is,  the  most  important  thing  of  all  is  the 
American  welcome.  Therefore,  whatever  is  done 
must  be  done  in  American  courtesy  to  newcomers 
from  abroad.  This  spirit  is  finely  expressed  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Italian  national  holiday  by  a 
Pennsylvania  town.  Around  Grove  City  is  a  large 
Italian  population  of  miners.  At  dawn  of  the  na- 
tional holiday  of  Italy,  August  8th,  the  town  was 
awakened  by  the  playing  of  a  band  and  tumultuous 
explosion  of  fireworks.  Thus  began  the  long  day 
of  music,  games,  and  illumination.  By  invitation 
of  the  President  of  Grove  City  College,  Dr.  Isaac 
C.  Ketler,  these  foreigners  used  for  the  day,  with 
great  respect,  affection,  and  self-restraint,  the  col- 
lege campus,  the  most  beautiful  park  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. This  illustrates  the  principle.  These  men 
will  always  feel  welcome,  and  will  find  themselves  at 
home  in  the  community  in  which  the  leading  citizens 
have  given  them  such  a  welcome. 

Teaching  Aliens  English.  The  language  of  the 
country  should  be  taught  to  the  foreigner.  The 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  does  this  suc- 
cessfully, and  the  book  by  Dr.  Peter  Roberts  is  to 
be  commended  as  a  quick  and  valuable  method  of 
"  Teaching  English  to  Foreigners." 

Evangelization  of  Foreigners.  The  evangeliza- 
tion of  foreigners,  when  they  have  been  welcomed 
and  taught  the  English  language,  has  great  possi- 
bilities.    This  is  a  Christian  land  to  them.     They 


1/2        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

easily  learn,  if  there  be  those  to  teach  them,  that 
religion  means  something  nobler  and  finer  in  a  free 
country  than  they  have  known  it  in  a  government  of 
compulsion.  The  swift  growth  in  the  number  of 
Italian  churches  throughout  the  country  is  sufficient 
evidence.  In  fifteen  years  they  have  increased  from 
five  to  over  three  hundred,  and  the  most  of  these 
have  come  into  existence  in  the  last  five  years  of  the 
fifteen.  The  success  of  this  work  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  foreigner  is  generally  a  marginal  man,  to 
whom  Protestant  Christianity  has  extraordinary 
value.  No  greater  service  can  be  rendered  by  Prot- 
estant churches  to  future  generations  than  to  Ameri- 
canize the  foreigners  and  lead  them  to  Christ. 

Variety  of  Activities.  Social  service  must,  there- 
fore, understand  the  modes  of  life  of  the  people  who 
are  on  the  edge  of  the  community.  It  must  be 
sympathetic  with  children,  with  adolescents,  with 
working  men,  and  with  "  renters."  For  this  reason 
recreation  is  a  great  element  in  marginal  service, 
because  recreation  has  the  value  for  working  men 
that  higher  education  has  for  the  well-to-do.  In- 
dustrial education  is  a  principle  of  marginal  service, 
because  training  in  getting  a  living  is  a  big  factor 
in  the  life  of  working  people.  But  the  important 
thing  is  the  principle  of  selection,  which  guided  the 
Master  himself,  the  principle,  namely,  that  to  serve 
the  whole  community  one  must  minister  to  the  peo- 
ple who  are  in  jeopardy,  and  enable  those  to  stand 
who  are  likely  to  fall.  One  must  find  the  lost  and 
restore  them.    He  must  heal  the  sick.    Thus  he  will 


The  Principle  of  Service  173 

play  upon  the  heart-strings  of  the  community.  He 
will  command  the  social  instinct.  He  will  turn  on 
the  currents  of  electric  sympathies  which  will  be- 
come his  resources,  and  on  his  side  will  be  the  whole 
power  of  social  organization  which  controls  the 
every-day  action  of  all  the  people  of  the  whole 
community. 


LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  COMMUNITY 


Any  consideration  of  the  problem  of  rural  life  that  leaves  out  of 
account  the  function  and  the  possibilities  of  the  Church,  and  of 
related    institutions,    would   be    grossly    inadequate. 

This  is  not  because  in  the  last  analysis  the  country-life  problem 
is  a  moral  problem,  or  that  in  the  best  development  of  the  individual 
the  great  motives  and  results  are  religious  and  spiritual,  but  because 
from  the  pure  sociological  point  of  view  the  Church  is  fundamentally 
a  necessary  institution  in  country  life.  In  a  peculiar  way  the  Church 
is  intimately  related  to  the  agricultural  industry.  The  work  and  the 
life  of  the  farm  are  closely  bound  together,  and  the  institutions  of 
the  country  react  on  that  life  and  on  one  another  more  intimately 
than  they  do  in  the  city.  This  gives  the  rural  Church  a  position  of 
peculiar  difficulty  and  one  of  unequaled  opportunity.  The  time  has 
arrived  when  the  Church  must  take  a  larger  leadership,  both  as  an 
institution  and  through  its  pastors,  in  the  social  reorganization  of 
rural    life. 

The  great  spiritual  needs  of  the  country  community  just  at  present 
are  higher  personal  and  community  ideals.  Rural  people  need  to  have 
an  aspiration  for  the  highest  possible  development  of  the  community. 
There  must  be  an  ambition  on  the  part  of  the  people  themselves 
constantly  to  prog^ress  in  all  of  those  things  that  make  the  community 
life  wholesome,  satisfying,  educative,  and  complete.  There  must  be 
a  desire  to  develop  a  permanent  environment  for  the  country  boy 
and  girl  of  which  they  will  become  passionately  fond.  As  a  pure 
matter  of  education,  the  countryman  must  learn  to  love  the  country 
and  to  have  an  intellectual  appreciation  of  it.  More  than  this,  the 
spiritual  nature  of  the  individual  must  be  kept  thoroughly  alive.  His 
personal  ideals  of  conduct  and  ambition  must  be  cultivated. 

Of  cource  the  Church  has  an  indispensable  function  as  a  con- 
servator of  morals.  But  from  the  social  point  of  view,  it  is  to  hold 
aloft  the  torch  of  personal  and  community  idealism.  It  must  be  a 
leader  in  the  attempt  to  idealize  country  life. — Report  of  the  Country 
Life  Commission 


176 


VIII 
LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  COMMUNITY 

Reasons  for  Lack  of  Leadership.  There  are  rea- 
sons for  lack  of  leadership  in  the  community.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  leveling  of  the  country  popula- 
tion by  the  sifting  out  of  all  modes  of  getting  a 
living  except  farming.  Country  people  tend  to  be 
reduced  to  one  economic  experience.  It  is  true  that 
in  only  a  few  communities  has  this  process  been 
completed,  but  in  all  the  effect  of  it  is  apparent  in  the 
growing  consciousness  of  farm  work  rather  than 
social  life.  The  thought  of  farm  people  about  their 
own  life  is  purely  industrial.  It  is  a  thought  of 
work  rather  than  of  association,  and  the  work  is 
agriculture. 

Strange  Interpretation  of  Democracy.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  working  people  and  farmers  that  they 
interpret  democracy  in  terms  of  level  and  uniform 
equality.  Farmers  especially  are  loath  to  admit  that 
there  are  any  leaders  in  their  community.  One  of 
the  most  puzzling  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  country 
minister  is  the  assent  of  all  his  people  to  the  proposi- 
tion "  We  have  no  leaders  here."  It  is  a  theory 
they  have  about  democracy  that  the  ideal  condition 
is  one  of  equality  in  which  no  man  stands  out  as 

177 


178        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

greater  than  his  neighbor.    It  is  the  "  make-believe  " 
by  which  they  play  the  game  of  life. 

No  Common  Socializing  Experience.  A  deeper 
cause  of  this  condition  is  the  lack  of  socializing  ex- 
perience in  the  country.  Rural  communities  are  con- 
trasted to  urban  or  town  communities  by  going 
through  the  round  of  the  year  without  any  notable 
event  or  celebration  unless  they  assemble  in  the 
town  or  village.  A  community  made  up  of  working 
farmers  generally  celebrates  no  anniversary,  and 
keeps  no  great  holiday.  This  is  a  very  curious  nega- 
tion, especially  for  American  people ;  but  in  a  coun- 
try community  the  Fourth  of  July  awakens  no  local 
spirit.  Thanksgiving  brings  no  grateful  response, 
Christmas  day  is  celebrated,  if  at  all,  in  the  house- 
hold alone,  and  Easter  is  not  regularly  a  great  day 
in  the  church.  Of  course  there  are  exceptions.  I 
am  describing  only  the  prevailing  condition.  In  the 
absence  of  customary  meetings  of  the  countryside, 
it  is  natural  that  leadership  should  not  be  evolved. 
The  community  itself,  that  is  to  say,  the  people  who 
live  within  a  convenient  team-haul  of  one  another, 
do  not  have  those  accustomed  contacts  that  would 
distinguish  one  above  another.  If  there  is  a  meet- 
ing in  the  course  of  the  year  to  which  all  the  fami- 
lies are  attracted,  it  is  probably  in  a  town,  and  it 
generally  exploits  the  country  community  while  con- 
tributing nothing  to  it.  The  circus  in  a  near-by  city 
is  attended  by  every  one.  The  county  fair  at  the 
county  seat  is  very  popular.  Such  as  these  are  an- 
nual events  on  which  all  attend,  but  their  influence 


SATURDAY    AFTERXOOX    l.\    TOWN 


Leadership  of  the  Community  179 

is  to  drain  and  to  weaken  rather  than  to  enrich  and 
distinguish  the  country  community. 

No  Natural  Meeting-places.  It  is  very  strange, 
too,  that  with  the  closing  of  the  old  country  stores 
away  from  the  railroad,  the  country  community  has 
lost  its  only  places  of  informal  meeting.  The  men  of 
the  community  have  no  natural  meeting-places. 
Their  leisure  is  not  attracted  by  any  magnet  within 
the  community.  The  women  may  be  somewhat  more 
fortunate,  for  their  church  connections  take  the 
form  of  sewing  circles  and  Ladies'  Aid  societies, 
but  the  men  and  boys  are  by  their  work  drawn 
apart  from  one  another.  Their  sport  and  recreation, 
so  far  as  the  community  goes,  is  solitary.  Hunting 
or  fishing  does  not  tend  to  produce  leadership  but 
rather  to  undermine  it.  There  can  be  no  persons 
known  to  a  whole  population  except  through  con- 
tinued leisurely  and  voluntary  association.  Out  of 
such  mingling,  dependent  not  on  compulsion,  but 
on  free  and  ingenuous  life  together,  leadership 
is  developed.  Whatever  common  experiences  there 
are  in  the  course  of  the  year  will  give  character 
to  the  leaders  who  exist  in  the  community.  At 
the  places  of  informal  association  these  gatherings 
with  the  men  who  there  assemble  will  continue  to 
describe  the  leaders  who  stand  before  the  commu- 
nity as  a  whole. 

Results  of  Surveys  in  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois. 
The  Surveys  made  by  the  Department  of  Church 
and  Country  Life  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  Illinois  in 
1909  showed  a  surprising  tendency  of  country  com- 


i8o        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

munities  to  be  unprogressive.  In  fifty  communities 
there  were  found  only  two  conspicuous  individuals 
who  were  acknowledged  by  the  farmers  about  them 
to  be  leaders.  Neither  of  these  individuals  is  a 
farmer.  No  community  was  found  in  which  the 
farmers  would  acknowledge  that  a  farmer  was  a 
leader  among  them.  The  two  leaders  in  these  fifty 
communities  were,  one  of  them  a  schoolmaster,  one 
of  them  an  old  soldier  and  politician. 

Leadership  is  Denied.  Under  these  conditions 
individual  life  withers  as  leadership  is  denied.  The 
man  who  attempts  to  live  as  the  equal  of  all  other 
men  will  cooperate  with  none,  for  cooperation 
means  subjection.  His  ideal  of  a  man,  to  which  he 
conforms  his  actions,  is  that  of  an  independent  per- 
sonality, owning  land,  paying  his  debts,  and  "  caring 
for  nobody."  This  is  not  the  highest  ideal  of  a 
human  being.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  universal 
^mong  farmers,  but  I  believe  it  is  the  ideal  which 
prevails  among  those  populations  in  which  the  sift- 
ing process  is  removing  from  the  farm  all  other 
modes  of  getting  a  living  except  farming. 

The  Residue  Degenerate.  The  tendency  of  this 
ideal  is  toward  degeneracy  on  the  part  of  many, 
brilliancy  on  the  part  of  a  few,  and  discouragement 
among  the  greater  number.  Those  communities 
which  assent  to  this  ideal  of  personality,  which  deny 
leadership  and  refuse  to  allow  distinction  among 
their  own  number,  shortly  lose  the  more  brilliant 
members  of  the  community.  Boys  and  girls  who 
are  restless  for.  distinction  and  aim  at  leadership 


W     " 


1 82        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

memorates.  Its  origin  is  forgotten,  but  its  value 
throughout  the  years  is  very  great.  It  fills  a  large 
place  in  the  community  life.  It  brings  home  once  a 
year  the  older  members  of  the  community.  It 
arouses  local  pride  in  the  success  of  every  son  of 
the  community  who  has  done  well.  It  stimulates  the 
aspirations  of  the  young,  and  above  all,  it  warms  up 
the  isolation  of  the  individual  with  a  sense  of  belong- 
ing to  a  distinguished  company. 

Reunions  and  Old  Home  Week.  An  old  church 
in  Wassaic,  Dutchess  County,  New  York,  had  a  re- 
cent reunion,  to  which  a  visit  or  a  letter  was  secured 
from  every  living  son  of  the  community.  It  gave 
to  the  members  of  a  discouraged  country  church 
and  to  the  remainders  of  families  living  in  the  coun- 
tryside a  sense  of  distinction,  of  being  a  part  of 
the  great  world,  which  they  had  not  had  before. 
The  Old  Home  Week  in  New  England  is  a  fine  ex- 
pression of  this  annual  meeting  of  the  community. 
It  is  of  special  value  for  the  older  places  which  have 
a  departed  population.  It  calls  them  home  or  brings 
from  them  a  letter  or  a  contribution.  It  marks  the 
historic  places  in  the  community  with  some  memorial 
in  granite  or  in  bronze.  It  brings  distinguished 
speakers  to  a  great  open-air  gathering  and  it  seats 
the  whole  countryside  together  at  the  table. 

Religious  Festivals.  But  above  all,  the  country, 
community  should  celebrate  the  great  holidays  of 
the  year.  Charles  Kingsley  has  a  fine  passage  on  the 
value  of  the  Church  year  to  the  Church  of  England 
congregations.    It  brings  before  them  all  the  round 


Leadership  of  the  Community  183 

of  human  experience.  In  America  the  celebrations 
of  the  country  community  should  not  be  those  of 
European  saints,  but  should  be  the  anniversaries  of 
American  sentiment  and  experience.  The  Church 
year  should  begin  with  a  gathering  at  Christmas 
time  in  celebration  of  the  Lord's  birth.  Gifts  made 
by  the  whole  community  to  the  children,  in  which  no 
child  should  be  omitted,  no  matter  what  his  religious 
belief,  can  at  this  time  bring  all  together.  The 
writer  remembers  with  tenderness  and  gratitude  the 
day  when  as  a  child  he  first  recited  a  few  verses  in  a 
Christmas  dialogue  on  the  church  platform.  It  was 
a  profound  and  lasting  religious  experience.  At  this 
time,  also,  the  celebration  can  take  the  form  of  song. 
Christmas  Appeal  Universal.  Choruses,  can- 
tatas, or  even  in  some  communities  an  oratorio,  are 
possible  at  Christmas  which  would  be  unattainable 
at  any  other  time.  It  is  the  season  of  the  year 
at  which  country  people  have  the  most  leisure.  The 
rehearsals  may  be  made  occasions  of  the  highest 
social  value,  but  above  all,  the  Christmas  celebra- 
tion should  be  of  such  a  character  that  none  shall  be 
left  out.  Neither  the  Catholic  nor  the  Jew,  if  they 
be  present  in  the  community,  should  be  excluded. 
There  is  something  about  the  Christmas  celebration 
which  appeals  to  all  mankind.  It  must  be  made  a 
time  for  enlarging  the  countryman's  idea  of  him- 
self. By  the  play  of  sentiment  the  individual  man 
must  have  his  eyes  opened  beyond  the  horizon  of  his 
own  farm  and  his  own  family  to  the  whole  com- 
munity and  the  whole  human  family. 


1 84        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Easter  and  Immortality.  Similarly  the  celebra- 
tion of  Easter  is  favorable  for  the  development  of 
religious  leadership.  Country  people  generally  be- 
lieve in  the  resurrection  and  in  immortality.  The 
country  minister  who  is  adequate  to  the  religious 
leadership  of  his  people  ought  to  know  how  to  coin 
this  universal  belief  in  immortality  into  a  great  cele- 
bration at  Easter  time.  Printed  aids  are  furnished 
with  some  fulness  by  religious  agencies,  but  it  is  far 
better  to  depend  upon  local  possibilities  and  to  de- 
velop the  day  in  song,  in  the  decoration  of  the 
church,  and  in  the  general  celebration  of  the  sea- 
son itself  in  such  way  as  to  minister  religiously  to 
the  community. 

Easter  and  Evangelism.  It  seems  to  the  writer 
that  the  Easter  season  is  the  best  time  for  evangelism. 
The  approach  of  this  sacred  day,  whose  tradition  en- 
ters so  deeply  into  the  belief  in  immortality,  should 
be  made  holy.  Amusement,  recreation,  and  ordi- 
nary social  life  should  be  discouraged,  and  the  fruit- 
age of  the  whole  year  in  religious  sentiment  should 
be  harvested  through  individual  expressions.  Im- 
mortality is  at  the  opposite  pole  from  social  feeling. 
Our  hopes  of  immortal  life  are  personal.  Therefore 
at  Easter  time  the  preacher  should  devote  himself 
to  the  development  of  the  individuals  among  his 
people.  Conversion  should  at  this  time  result  from 
the  general  work  throughout  the  year. 

Community's  Objective  Determines  Type  of 
Leader.  The  essential  thing  is  the  spirit  of  develop- 
ing the  community's  own  life  in  its  own  terms.    The 


Leadership  of  the  Community  185 

value  of  all  this  will  show  itself  in  the  rise  of  lead-- 
ers  among  the  people  themselves.  As  before  indi- 
cated, the  leadership  will  be  of  like  character  with 
the  means  by  which  that  leadership  is  produced.  If 
the  means  be  religious,  ethical,  and  social,  the  lead^ 
ers  who  shall  arise  will  be  devout,  moral,  and  popu^ 
lar  men.  If  the  meetings  of  the  people  are  purely 
for  business  purposes,  the  leaders  of  the  town  will 
be  concerned  alone  with  its  business  prosperity.  It 
is  the  business  of  the  minister  and  the  teacher  in  the 
country  community  so  to  agitate  the  community  and 
so  to  unite  it  that  the  leaders  of  the  community- 
shall  be  men  of  conscience,  of  intelligence,  and  of  a 
progressive  spirit.  If  the  loafers  of  the  town  are  the 
only  ones  who  have  opportunity  for  frequent  asso-^ 
ciation,  then  the  loafers  will  select  the  leaders.  But 
if  the  regular  meetings  of  the  town  are  bright,  in- 
tellectual, and  popular;  if  the  enjoyment  is  furnished 
by  music,  by  dramatic  expression,  by  the  remem- 
brance of  the  past  of  the  community,  and  by  plan- 
ning for  the  future,  then  the  leadership  of  the 
town  will  flow  from  these  sources,  and  the  common 
mind  of  the  community  will  demand  and  will  secure 
those  personalities  who  shall  stand  before  all  the 
people  to  accomplish  that  for  which  the  whole  people 
aspire. 

Revivals  and  Leadership.  Evangelism  creates 
leaders.  Men's  souls  are  saved  that  they  may  be- 
come priests  and  prophets  of  God.  All  the  means 
described  above  for  the  cultivation  of  leaders  have 
been  practised  by  ministers  in  the  country,  but  are 


1 86        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

dependent  upon  the  discovery  of  devoted  men  and 
women  through  their  thorough  conversion  and  re- 
generation. If  the  community  has  a  few  who  give 
their  lives  for  the  Kingdom,  it  may  train  them  in 
these  ways  for  larger  service.  But  above  all,  the 
annual  pilgrimage  to  the  valley  of  decision  must 
bring  men's  souls  before  God.  Persuade  those 
whose  heart  God  has  touched  to  confess  their  faith 
in  him.  The  best  times  for  this  revival  of  religion 
are  in  the  late  fall  and  the  early  spring.  Com- 
munities differ  in  this,  but  some  period  is  especially 
suitable,  and  at  this  time  the  great  and  holy  day 
of  decision  should  be  made  the  first  of  all  holidays. 
Every  energy  of  the  Church  should  be  turned  toward 
the  conversion  of  souls. 

All  Organizations  Have  Symbols.  All  societies 
are  united  under  some  kind  of  a  symbol.  Armies 
march  behind  banners,  and  because  their  organiza- 
tion is  artificial  and  intense,  they  have  numerous 
standards,  guides,  and  emblems.  But  natural  so- 
cieties cannot  get  on  without  the  same  service.  Peo- 
ple rally  very  often  around  a  symbol  which  serves 
the  mere  purpose  of  assembling  them,  with  more  en- 
thusiasm than  for  the  purposes  of  their  common 
life.  Men  will  sometimes  do  more  for  the  flag  than 
they  will  do  for  what  the  flag  represents.  Neverthe- 
less, the  flag  serves  a  purpose  in  uniting  them,  and 
this  is  itself  of  great  value. 

Community  Symbol  is  the  Church.  The  coun- 
try community,  like  every  other  society,  is  united 
in  a  symbol,  and  in  the  country  this  symbol  is  the 


Leadership  of  the  Community  187 

church.  The  spire  rising  above  the  trees,  by  the 
roadside,  serves  as  a  pivot  of  rural  interest.  The 
weekly  meeting  has  varying  meanings,  with  the 
change  of  ministers  and  with  the  variation 
of  their  themes,  but  it  has  an  unchanging  value 
for  the  community  as  a  place  to  assemble  and  as  a 
token  that  the  people  are  one. 

Worship  is  for  Everybody.  The  flag  of  the 
country  community  is  the  church.  This  is  the  com- 
mon center  around  which  all  may  rally.  Its  doc- 
trines and  its  membership  are  for  a  limited  number, 
but  its  worship  is  for  everybody.  The  sound  of  its 
bell  comes  to  all  hearts,  and  the  influence  of  its  unit- 
ing power  is  upon  the  whole  countryside.  The  old- 
time  ministers  were  statesmen  and  they  held  their 
churches  up  against  the  whole  community.  We 
have  too  frequently  forgotten  this  meaning  of  the 
church,  as  a  token  of  the  people's  common  life.  It 
is  none  the  less  real,  and  it  can  be  restored. 

Likeness  Attracts  Individuals.  Consciousness  of 
kind  is  recognized  by  sociologists  as  an  organiz- 
ing force.  Those  who  respond  to  common  stimuli 
become  aware  of  their  resemblances  and  their  dif- 
ferences. They  recognize  a  certain  oneness,  and  im- 
mediately a  society  is  born.  It  may  be  a  great  one 
or  a  small  one,  but  the  foundations  of  societies  are 
laid  when  men  become  aware  that  they  are  like  unto 
one  another  and  diflferent  from  the  rest. 

Doak  Organized  Differing  Communities.  When 
Samuel  Doak,  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College, 
came  on  horseback  through  East  Tennessee  to  Nola 


1 88        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Chucky  River,  he  stopped  in  the  woods  to  inquire 
the  way,  of  men  who  were  chopping.  They  learned 
that  he  was  a  minister,  and  asked  him  to  preach. 
So  sitting  on  his  horse  as  he  was,  he  preached  a  ser- 
mon to  the  assembled  pioneers.  They  gathered 
about  him  and  constrained  him  to  remain  as  their 
pastor.  This  was  about  1795.  He  began  his  minis- 
try, and  at  the  same  time  laid  the  foundations  of 
Washington  College,  the  earliest  college  to  be 
founded  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  For  a  few  years 
his  people  were  conscious  of  their  kinship  to  Dr. 
Doak.  But  shortly  a  sense  of  difference  arose,  and 
he  felt  constrained  to  go  further  and  unite  himself 
with  the  people  of  Tusculum,  fifteen  miles  south- 
westward,  where  he  again  built  up  a  country  com- 
munity and  where  again  he  founded  a  college,  which 
became  Tusculum  College.  These  two  communities 
were  organized  as  churches.  The  church  was  the 
symbol  of  the  community's  life.  These  churches 
still  remain,  each  intensely  conscious  of  its  kinship 
to  the  people  in  its  own  community,  and  having  a 
sense  of  difference  from  the  people  in  the  other 
community  founded  by  Samuel  Doak.  So  intense 
was  this  consciousness  of  difference  that  when  the 
pioneer  preacher  died,  and  they  carried  his  body  to 
be  buried  at  Washington  College,  it  is  said  that 
very  few  of  the  first  settlers  came  out  to  pay  respect 
to  his  remains. 

Churches  Recognize  Social  Divisions.  Worship 
is  the  truest  expression  we  have  of  conciousness  of 
kind.      In    America,    where    there    are    no    state 


Leadership  of  the  Community  189 

churches,  the  worship  of  Grod  is  the  freest  common 
function  in  which  all  the  people  are  represented. 
It  expresses,  therefore,  with  infallible  accuracy,  the 
consciousness  of  differences  and  of  resemblances  in 
the  mind  of  the  people.  For  in  the  hurried  and 
changing  reorganization  of  recent  years  the  churches 
have  harbored  the  social  feelings  of  the  people.  We 
have  come  to  have  "  rich  men's  churches,"  "  work- 
ing men's  churches,"  "  student  pastors,"  "  sailors' 
Bethels,"  "  slum  chapels,"  and  other  Church  or- 
ganizations which  are  symbols  of  the  social  divisions 
in  which  the  people  live. 

Color  Causes  Divisions.  The  most  striking  ex- 
pression of  consciousness  of  kind,  as  reflected  in  the 
Church,  is  in  the  South.  Before  the  war  the  Negroes 
worshiped  with  their  masters,  but  when  they  were 
freed  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  they  went 
out  to  build  their  own  churches  and  the  South  has 
to-day  churches  for  the  white,  and  churches  for  the 
Negro,  in  all  its  States.  The  fact  that  this  division 
represents  the  feelings  of  all  the  people  of  the  South 
is  evidenced  by  this,  that  the  Negro  churches  are 
very  largely  erected  with  the  white  man's  money. 
The  black  trace  their  consciousness  of  kinship  in 
accordance  with  color  and  racial  history  by  the 
worship  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

Church  Must  Recognize  Fundamental  Social 
Feelings.  There  is,  of  course,  much  to  be  lamented 
in  this  social  division  of  the  people.  I  am  anxious 
here  only  to  trace  it  and  to  recognize  clearly  the 
place   which  worship   has   in   social  organization. 


190        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

We  will  not  be  able  to  build  the  community  Church, 
unless  we  recognize  clearly  the  principle  by  which 
churches  serve  the  people,  in  expressing  fundamental 
social  feelings.  The  Church  is  the  symbol  of  the 
social  life  of  the  whole  people. 

Minister  Must  Know  Community's  Sentiments. 
The  minister's  need  of  social  knowledge  is  most  evi- 
dent at  this  point.  Unless  he  knows  how  the  people 
feel,  and  makes  himself  the  expression  of  that  feel- 
ing, he  cannot  lead  them.  For  instance,  in  New 
England  the  proprieties  require  that  a  man's  sins 
be  not  discussed  at  his  funeral.  No  matter  how 
bad  he  may  have  been,  the  community  does  not 
need  to  be  told  of  it  on  that  occasion.  It  is  a  part 
of  the  decorum  rooted  in  the  feelings  of  all  New 
England  people  that  the  dead  should  be  decently 
laid  away,  and  that  something  be  said  appropriate  to 
the  occasion.  I  remember  the  comment  of  two 
typical  Yankees,  made  in  reference  to  the  funeral 
addresses  by  pastors  over  departed  friends.  In 
either  case  the  man  who  died  had  his  faults,  and 
in  both  cases  the  minister  had  seen  fit  to  deal  fa- 
miliarly with  these  faults.  In  so  doing  he  had  put 
himself  out  of  sympathy  with  the  community.  He 
lost  his  power  to  act  for  them  all,  and  weakened  his 
influence. 

Pastor  Who  Unites  Community.  Some  farm- 
ing communities  have  expressed  themselves  so  per- 
fectly in  the  life  of  the  minister,  and  he  has  repre- 
sented with  such  precision  their  common  life,  that 
his  days  have  been  passed,  even  down  to  old  age,  with 


Leadership  of  the  Community  191 

them.  The  Rev.  J.  L.  Braddock  came  to  the  church 
at  Winnebago,  Illinois,  at  forty-eight  years  of  age. 
The  end  of  his  pastorate  came  in  his  ninety-first 
year.  Forty-two  years  he  represented  that  commu- 
nity, and  so  intimate  was  the  sympathy  between  him 
and  them,  so  truly  did  he  use  the  symbol  of  the  com- 
munity, that  the  whole  population  at  the  end  of  his 
pastorate  was  represented  in  its  membership,  save 
two  or  three  families;  and  the  streams  of  life  of 
the  households,  the  children,  the  young  people,  the 
women,  and  the  men  in  their  respective  organiza- 
tions flowed  through  that  church.  Such  an  instance 
expresses  the  satisfaction  of  the  community  in  the 
church  and  its  leader. 

A  Woman  Unites  Divergent  Classes.  I  have 
known  a  woman  to  embody  the  life  of  the  commu- 
nity. She  was  endowed  with  rare  and  intense  social 
sympathy.  Magnetic  in  personality  and  possessed 
of  ample  means,  she  compelled  the  allegiance  of  all. 
Those  whom  she  united  in  one  experience  of  com- 
munity feeling  were  divergent  from  one  another  in 
the  widest  degrees.  The  very  old  and  the  very 
young,  the  very  rich  and  proud,  the  very  poor  and 
discouraged,  found  in  her  an  experience  of  sym- 
pathy with  their  condition,  and  through  her,  sym- 
pathized with  one  another.  For  fifteen  years  her 
life  was  theirs,  and  their  needs  were  her  daily 
thought.  But  the  medium  of  this  influence  was  the 
country  church,  in  which  she  was  a  member,  which 
they  all  attended.  The  various  organizations  in  this 
country  church  touched  the  lives  of  all  the  people  in 


192        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  community,  and  in  all  these  organizations  her 
influence  was  felt. 

Illinois  Example.  In  an  Illinois  town,  in  which 
I  am  deeply  interested,  the  country  church,  out  in 
the  open  fields,  has  been  the  center  of  great  interest. 
The  schools  have  been  consolidated  alongside  the 
church.  The  holidays  of  the  year  are  celebrated 
under  the  leadership  of  the  church  people.  A  near- 
by abandoned  neighborhood  in  which  there  has  been 
no  preaching  for  many  years  has  been  annexed  to 
the  parish,  and  the  whole  community  is  united  in 
one  house  of  worship.  Yet  in  this  community  the 
most  influential  men  deny  that  they  are  leaders. 
They  recognize  that  in  order  to  lead  they  must  ap- 
pear to  follow.  There  is  no  country  squire  among 
them.  They  instinctively  feel  that  if  any  man  took 
on  the  airs  of  leadership,  he  would  at  once  lose  all 
his  followers.  For  such  a  situation  the  country 
Church  is  the  available  symbol,  which  furnishes  a 
medium  of  exchange  of  influences.  It  embodies  the 
unity  of  the  countryside  under  cover  of  which  all 
these  things  can  be  done  by  a  few  families,  indeed, 
very  often  by  just  one  household  in  which  is  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  leadership.  The  standard  which 
all  follow  is  held  high,  but  the  standard-bearer  is 
not  seen. 

Magnify  the  Church  in  the  Community.  If  the 
Church  is  the  symbol  of  the  community,  it  follows 
that  to  train  people  in  community  ways  one  must 
magnify  the  Church,  There  is  needed  to-day  a  great 
Protestant   movement   for   reinterpreting   religious 


Leadership  of  the  Community  193 

life  in  terms  of  the  Church.  It  must  be  broad- 
minded  and  tolerant  in  the  truest  sense,  but  never- 
theless it  will  be  an  organizing  of  Christian  senti- 
ment and  a  reassembling  of  Christian  people  in 
congregations  which  serve  communities.  If  we  ever 
come  to  have  the  country  organized  in  communities 
and  the  life  of  individuals  inspiring  the  deeds  in  their 
communities,  we  will  inevitably  have  the  Church  as 
the  token  of  the  community's  oneness,  standing  out 
in  the  open  country  with  its  people  about  it. 

Weakness  in  Individualism.  The  evident  weak- 
ness of  the  present-day  Protestant  sentiment  is  its 
individualism.  Solitary  living  has  given  us  a  soli- 
tary religion.  We  have  been  ruled  by  pioneer  men 
and  pioneer  standards,  but  pioneer  days  are  gone 
forever.  Our  evangelism  has  been  content  to  tell 
salvation  to  the  individual  soul  and  lay  no  bondage 
upon  that  soul  for  service  to  the  community.  We 
have  worked  in  our  churches  and  Sunday-schools  for 
the  regeneration  of  the  youth  and  have  had  nothing 
for  them  of  a  regenerate  sort  when  it  was  done. 
The  result  is  that  the  Sunday-school  terminates  its 
influence  over  most  of  the  children  at  about  fifteen 
years  of  age.  But  ideals  are  needed  to  take  up  the 
life  of  our  young  people  or  of  those  converted  and 
harness  them  to  the  great  task  of  the  world. 

Foreign  Mission  Ideal.  Within  the  past  twenty 
years  the  foreign  mission  propaganda  has  furnished 
such  an  ideal  and  has  possessed  the  minds  of  the 
young  men  and  women  in  the  schools  and  colleges. 
It  expresses  itself  in  the  formula  "  Religion  means 


194  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country- 
God,  myself,  and  the  world."  We  must  have  a  new 
ideal  more  intensive  than  this  and  nearer  home. 
For  the  most  of  men  cannot  lay  their  soul  under 
bondage  to  the  whole  world.  The  Christian  man 
can  live  in  his  community,  but  not  one  in  a  hundred 
is  capable  of  practising  the  "world  idea,"  and  if 
the  "  world  idea  "  is  to  be  of  influence  among  the 
home-dwelling  folk,  it  must  come  to  them  through  the 
distributing  center  of  a  community  institution.  The 
country  Church  is  necessary  for  sustaining  the  great 
project  of  evangelizing  the  world. 

Church  Should  Dominate  Individual  and  Com- 
munity. Christian  sentiment  must  be  reshaped  and 
Christian  people  must  be  reenlisted  in  the  interest  of 
the  Church  as  a  specific  expression  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  We  need  change  no  vital  principle  of  the 
Protestant  heritage.  We  have  been  unfaithful  to  this 
heritage  in  our  diffuse  and  diluted  individualism. 
We  need  stern,  vigorous  reorganization  of  life, 
which  will  express  itself  in  churches  so  strong  as  to 
dominate  the  individual  life  and  so  extensively  or- 
ganized as  to  penetrate  the  whole  community  with 
their  influence. 

Saved  to  Serve.  The  trouble  we  have  to  over- 
come is  a  weak,  good-natured  conception  that  the 
Christian  is  saved  by  certain  emotional  experiences 
he  has  had,  and  the  Church  is  no  more  business  of 
his.  He  is  to  live  a  good  life  and  avoid  scandal,  and 
when  necessary  he  is  to  be  waited  on  by  Church  or- 
ganizations, sustained  by  other  people,  and  held 
together  by  those  who  are  more  narrow  and  more 


Leadership  of  the  Community  195 

traditional  in  their  type  than  he.  But  the  strong" 
personalities  of  the  world,  the  literary  minds,  the 
persons  who  love  nature  and  "  can  worship  in  the 
woods,"  the  esthetic  souls  who  need  the  means  of 
culture,  these  conceive  that  having  received  the  mes- 
sage of  salvation  which  the  Church  has  to  give  them, 
they  have  done  all  that  is  taught  in  Christianity  and 
owe  no  further  duty.  For  this  state  of  mind  the 
traditional  evangelism  and  the  customary  preaching 
are  to  blame.  Individual  souls  have  been  over- 
dosed with  a  gospel  of  their  personal  importance. 
Protestantism  has  become  centrifugal.  It  has  been 
diluted  with  a  false  idealism.  There  is  no  organiz- 
ing principle  in  very  much  of  it,  and  a  great  deal  of 
the  individualism  of  our  time,  the  selfish  culture  of 
learned  men,  the  masterful  independence  and  ruth- 
less loneliness  of  some  rich  men,  have  been  extreme 
results  of  this  false  idealism.  Though  they  are  ex- 
treme results,  they  are  logical  and  inevitable.  We 
cannot  preach  an  unmodified  doctrine  of  personal 
salvation  without  having  these  results. 

Enlist  for  Community  Betterment.  The  needed 
teaching  in  our  time  is  that  of  the  organized  com- 
munity. Christian  people  and  other  well-meaning 
folk  must  all  assemble  as  the  leaders  and  must  be 
enlisted  as  the  workers  in  community  betterment. 
They  must  be  taught  to  recognize  clearly  the  bounds 
of  their  community.  They  must  come  to  see  how 
fully  their  own  lives  and  the  lives  of  their  children 
and  kindred  are  spent  in  that  little  environment. 
They  must  make  of  it  a  republic  to  be  ruled  in 


196        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

sanitary  respects,  in  all  matters  of  beauty  and  in 
the  recreative  life*,  in  the  interest  of  developing 
personality  and  of  the  unfolding  social  life.  In  the 
•service  of  this  little  republic  to  the  influence  of  the 
Church  will  be  the  dominating  element.  If  Christian 
churches  are  not  the  community  centers,  then  new 
churches  will  arise.    This  great  task  will  be  done. 

Denmark's  Example.  The  progress  of  the  coun- 
try life  rnovement  in  Denmark  illustrates  this  tend- 
ency of  community  organization  to  build  churches. 
The  Church  has  been  organized  and  new  structures 
have  been  erected  wherever  the  people  have  been  as- 
sembled in  working  and  serviceable  units.  They 
have  needed  a  symbol  of  their  oneness.  Although  the 
regeneration  of  Denmark  was  carried  on  by  the 
schoolmasters,  who  wrought  out  its  details  and  bore 
the  burden  of  its  routine,  both  the  beginning  and 
the  ending  of  it  were  the  work  of  ministers  of  re- 
ligion. It  was  inspired  by  Bishop  Grundtvig  and 
his  associates ;  and  when  it  was  matured  it  expressed 
itself  in  church  building  and  church  organization. 
The  seed  of  it  and  the  flower  of  it  were  religious, 
but  the  stalk  and  stem  and  branch  were  educational. 

Devotion  to  Community.  Therefore  the  sum  of 
the  whole  matter  is  this.  The  Christian  man  or 
woman  in  America,  especially  in  the  open  country, 
must  learn  to  devote  himself  to  the  community,  and 
to  this  end  must  magnify  the  Church  as  the  commu- 
nity center.  A  new  formula  will  control  his  life. 
He  shall  say,  "  Religion  consists,  for  me,  of  God  in 
the  community,  and  in  the  world."     This  cannot 


Leadership  of  the  Community  197 

be  done  without  magnifying  the  Church,  but  atten- 
tion must  not  be  first  of  all  upon  the  Church.  A 
selfish  Church  that  seeks  the  obedience  of  men  and 
demands  their  craven  submission  cannot  do  this 
work,  but  the  Church  which  preaches  the  gospel  of 
common  service  in  a  common  local  task,  and  offers 
its  own  house  and  its  own  walls  and  its  own  minister 
for  this  use  will  build  itself  and  will  be  enlarged 
in  the  process  of  serving  the  community. 

Rural  Life  Out  of  Repair.  To  review,  therefore : 
country  life  is  out  of  repair.  Rural  institutions  have 
been  breaking  down  under  the  influences  of  specula- 
tion in  land.  The  causes  of  this  dilapidation  of 
social  life  in  the  country  are  transitional.  They 
will  soon  pass  away.  Religious  people  are  all  sum- 
moned, therefore,  to  provide  for  the  new  day  of 
organized  farming  which  is  to  come.  It  is  for  them 
to  idealize  it,  and  to  express  its  spirit  in  a  new  con- 
ception of  life.  This  conception  of  life  is  to  be 
expressed  in  the  Church,  the  center  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Four  Phases  and  Types.  Country  life  has  passed 
through  three  or  four  phases  leading  to  maturity. 
Each  of  these  phases  has  been  under  the  domina- 
tion of  a  new  type  of  men ;  the  solitary  farmer,  the 
household  farmer,  the  speculative  farmer,  and  the 
organized  farmer.  Each  of  these  has  built  his  own 
community,  centering  it  in  a  church  of  his  own 
sort.  These  churches  and  communities  have  been  so 
unlike  one  another  that  what  is  thought  good  in  the 
one  is  thought  wrong  in  the  other.    In  the  eyes  of 


</ 


198        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

the  pioneer  the  warm  social  ways  of  the  household 
farmer  are  sinful.  Yet  these  successive  stages  of 
community  life  are  cumulative.  All  that  was  good 
in  the  earlier  stage  is  retained  until  the  later  ones, 
and  in  the  day  of  organized  farming,  which  is  dawn- 
ing, the  methods  and  even  the  personalities  of  pio- 
neer, of  household,  and  of  speculative  farming  will 
have  their  place. 

Central  Place  of  the  Church.  The  task  of  organ- 
izing the  Church  to  respond  to  the  scientific  agricul- 
ture of  our  day  is  exceedingly  intricate.  It  will 
be  a  highly  organized  and  sympathetic  institution. 
It  can  be  no  less  than  the  center  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. It  cannot  afford  that  any  part  of  the 
community  be  outside  its  influence.  For  this  reason 
modern  Christian  people  are  craving  the  federation 
of  the  churches  in  order  that  the  Church  may  truly 
reflect  the  life  of  a  cooperating  and  uniting  people. 

Reorganized  Country  Schools.  The  schools  in 
the  country  need  to  be  reorganized  to  serve  the  needs 
of  Christian  communities.  The  principle  of  this 
reconstruction  is  the  teaching  of  science  to  the 
farmer  as  a  preparation  for  country  life.  Not 
merely  to  make  the  farmer  rich  is  the  motive  in  the 
new  schools  in  the  country,  but  while  enriching  him 
to  win  him  to  a  new  rural  idealism  and  to  make 
of  him  a  new  type  of  countryman.  This  is  the 
principle  on  which  the  schools  in  the  country  must 
be  rebuilt.  For  this  purpose  the  centralizing  and 
consolidating  of  the  common  schools  is  necessary. 
Not  in  all  places,  for  there  will  remain  many  one- 


Leadership  of  the  Community  199 

room  country  schools  which  serve  their  purpose  in 
the  corners  of  the  land.  But  the  system  of  schools 
in  the  country  must  be  reorganized  on  the  radius 
of  the  team-haul;  the  children  assembled  in  large 
groups  for  social  intercourse,  and  for  constructive 
moral  and  spiritual  culture. 

Spirit  of  Cooperation.  Farming  is  essentially 
cooperative.  Those  farmers  have  survived  through 
the  recent  period  of  change  who  inherited  from  their 
ancestors  the  practise  of  cooperation,  and  they  alone 
have  survived.  The  uncooperative  farming  which 
prevailed  throughout  the  country  has  suffered 
severely  under  the  influence  of  speculation  in  land. 
The  home,  the  Church,  and  the  school  in  the  country, 
where  unprotected  by  codperation,  have  been  under- 
mined by  the  speculative  process  of  the  past  twenty 
years.  The  growth  of  cooperative  customs  among 
farmers  is,  therefore,  to  be  encouraged  by  the 
churches  for  self -protection  and  for  building  up 
country  communities  immune  to  the  changes  in  the 
value  of  land  or  of  farm  products.  Country  life 
will  come  into  possession  of  itself  only  through 
federation  of  the  farmers  in  their  own  interest. 

Federation  of  Churches.  This  cooperation  in 
economic  life  is  the  true  preparation  for  the  federa- 
tion of  the  churches.  The  material  and  other  re- 
lations of  life  must  all  become  organic  and  one  be- 
fore the  symbols  of  the  people's  life  which  are  in  the 
churches  reorganize.  The  Heavenly  Father  is  at 
work  among  the  people,  feeding,  clothing,  enriching, 
and  organizing  them,  and  he  cares  more  for  the  wel- 


200        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

fare  of  the  people  than  for  the  survival  of  the 
churches.  He  is  shepherd  of  the  flock,  and  if  he 
must  change  the  fold,  he  will  not  forget  his  care  of 
the  sheep.  Wherever  the  flock  is  reassembled  it 
will  be  easy  to  build  a  new  fold.  Wherever  the  people 
are  cooperative  in  their  life  and  organize  in  com- 
munities, the  federation  of  churches  will  surely 
follow. 

Pauperism  Abolished.  The  new  prosperity  which 
has  come  in  the  country  must  be  trained  by  com- 
munity organization,  first  of  all,  to  care  for  the 
XKDor.  Pauperism  must  be  excluded  from  the  com- 
munity. It  is  impossible  to  have  any  real  prosperity 
while  any  number  in  the  neighborhood  is  in  want. 
It  is  impossible  for  intelligence  to  be  real  and  for 
•culture  to  be  genuine  while  ignorance  and  destitution 
are  near  at  hand.  The  country  community  must  be 
made  the  clearing-house  for  the  protection  and  the 
sustaining  of  those  who  are  without  land  and  with- 
out productive  tools.  Moreover,  we  are  learning 
new  methods  of  distributing  the  wealth  of  the  peo- 
ple in  the  interest  of  the  whole  people,  and  these 
methods  are  religious.  They  are  already  a  part  of 
the  work  of  the  churches.  It  is  important  for  re- 
ligious people  to  use  the  democratic  methods,  born 
of  their  own  necessities,  by  the  transformation  of 
pew-renting  and  other  older  customs  into  the  demo- 
cratic support  of  the  church  by  small  regular  con- 
tributions from  all.  The  vital  character  of  the 
churches  is  shown  in  this  struggle  for  democracy  in 
giving. 


Leadership  of  the  Community  201 

Ministry  to  Marginal  People.  The  principle  of 
social  service  is  the  care  of  the  poor.  During  our 
lifetime  there  will  be  men  without  land  and  with- 
out tools  in  America  and  probably  in  increasing 
proportions.  While  we  are  discussing  the  far-dis- 
tant future  when  poverty  is  to  be  abolished,  it  be- 
comes us  to  take  measures  for  its  repression  now  in 
the  country  community,  where  pauperism  can  be 
abolished.  The  principle  of  social  service  is  the 
ministry  of  those  who  have  means  and  leadership 
to  the  people  on  the  edge  of  the  community,  to  those 
who  are  in  jeopardy,  and  whose  hold  upon  social 
life  is  constantly  in  danger.  To  serve  them  is  tO' 
serve  all.  This  is  the  principle  of  selection,  by 
which  social  service  shall  be  rendered  with  ease  and 
with  power. 

Church  Community  Symbol.  Finally  there  is  nc^ 
symbol  of  all  this  spirit  save  the  Church.  If  the 
people  prosper,  it  will  show  itself  in  the  Church.  If 
the  people  are  mean,  the  Church  will  infallibly  repre- 
sent their  sordid  spirit.  If  the  people  are  demo- 
cratic, the  Church  will  be  large-minded.  If  the 
people  are  narrow,  their  churches  will  write  upon 
the  sky  the  story  of  their  bigotry.  The  Church  is, 
therefore,  the  emblem  of  the  social  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  should  be  understood  as  a  means  of  knowing 
social  conditions.  It  is  the  sensitive  register  which 
they  who  work  for  the  welfare  of  mankind  may 
use.  The  Church  is  the  vehicle  of  ministry  unto  all 
the  community.  Its  power  to  inspire  and  to  see 
is  beyond  the  power  of  any  other  institution. 


202        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

Ministry  to  Common  People.  For  in  the  life  of 
the  whole  people  dwells  the  life  of  the  Almighty 
Father.  He  cares  for  them  and  moves  upon  them 
and  leads  them  on  through  the  years  of  history  to 
his  own  destined  ends.  They  who  are  poor  and 
whose  welfare  depends  upon  the  life  of  the  people  as 
a  whole  believe  in  God.  Among  them  there  is  no 
doubt,  and  he  who  would  meet  with  God  must  meet 
him  in  the  life  of  common  folk,  who  depend  for  their 
welfare  and  for  the  expression  of  their  faith  upon 
the  Church  at  the  center  of  the  community. 


QUESTIONS  AND  REFERENCES 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  USING  THE  QUESTIONS 

The  questions  below  have  been  prepared  to  suggest  a  few 
lines  of  discussion  that  may  be  pursued  by  the  average  leader 
of  a  study  class.  It  must  be  evident  to  all  that  no  set  of 
questions  can  be  prepared  that  will  satisfy  all  leaders.  Both 
the  caliber  of  the  leader  and  the  character  of  the  group  will 
vary  in  every  local  church.  Even  persons  who  have  had  ex- 
tensive experience  in  leading  classes  will  probably  find  these 
questions  suggestive,  and  it  is  hoped  that  those  who  are  just 
beginning  will  receive  much  help.  Few  fact  questions  have 
been  included  because  they  can  be  easily  supplied  by  any 
leader  from  the  paragraph   headings. 

Questions  marked  with  the  asterisk  (*)  should  arouse 
more  than  ordinary  thought  and  discussion. 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  I 

Aim:    To   Understand   the   Principal   Causes   of   Rural 
Deterioration 

I.  If  you  are  living  in  an  urban  community,  in  what 
respects  are  you  dependent  upon  the  agricultural  com- 
munities ? 

2.*  Is  the  prosperity  of  agriculture  vital  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation?     Give  reasons. 

3.*  Do  you  believe  that  the  prosperity  of  the  farmers  is 
of  greater  importance  than  the  prosperity  of  the  in- 
dustrial enterprises?     State  reasons. 

4.  Why  have  so  many  young  people  gone  from  the  farm 
to  the  towns  and  cities? 

5.  Do  you  believe  they  have  really  benefited  themselves 
by  the  change,  and  in  what  respects? 

6.  Describe  the  four  types  of  rural  life  in  the  United 
States. 

7.  Which  type  is  the  most  evident  in  our  country  to-day? 

8.  What  do  you  consider  the  strength  and  weakness  of 
each  type? 

9.  Which  do  you  consider  the  best  type  in  the  past,  and 
why? 

203 


204        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

10.  Would  you  wish  to  restore  that  type  if  it  were 
possible  ? 

11.  Which  section  of  the  United  States  is  deteriorating 
most,  and  why? 

12.  Which  of  the  phases  of  rural  deterioration  is  the  most 
disastrous  ? 

13.*  Is  soil  exhaustion  a  greater  menace  to  agricultural 
welfare  than  speculation? 

14.*  Do  you  think  the  fundamental  cause  for  rural  decay 
is  economic,  social,  or  religious? 

15.  Sum  up  the  principal  causes  of  rural  deterioration  in 
the  order  of  their  importance. 

16.*  What  assistance  can  people  in  towns  and  cities  give 
toward  the  upbuilding  of  the  rural  community? 

l^.    What  can  scientific  farming  do  to  improve  conditions? 

18.  What  can  the  rural  inhabitants  do  to  improve  con- 
ditions ? 

19.*  What  can  the  churches  do  to  improve  country  life? 

REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 

CHAPTER  I 

Anderson,  The  Country  Town.  I,  III,  V-IX. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  XII. 

Bailey,  The  Country  Life  Movement,  14-43. 

Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  II,  III. 

Butterfield,  Chapters  in  Rural  Progress,  I. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Problem,  I. 

Hartt,   "The   Regeneration   of   Rural    New   England,"   The 

Outlook,  March  3,   10,  17,  31,  1900. 
Hyde,  "  Impending  Paganism  in  New  England,"  The  Forum, 

June,  1892. 
Plunkett,   The   Rural   Life   Problem   in   the  United  States, 

III.  IV. 
Roads,  Rural  Christendom,  III. 
Strong,  The  Challenge  of  the  City,  I. 
Strong,  The  New  Era,  VIII. 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  II 

Aim  :  To  Show  the  Intimate  Relation  of  the  Church  to 
THE  Community 

I.    Have  you  ever  seen  a  prosperous  agricultural  com- 
munity without  a  church? 


Questions  and  References  205 

2.  Do  you  think  people  in  the  country  are  more  religious 
than  those  in  towns  and  cities? 

3.*  Has  the  man  who  is  in  touch  with  the  forces  of  na- 
ture any  advantages  in  strengthening  his  religious 
faith  over  the  dweller  in  town  and  city? 

4.  Can  the  minister  in  a  rural  parish  relate  people  to  God 
more  intimately  than  the  minister  in  a  city? 

5.*  Are  the  people  in  a  rural  community  more  accessible 
to  the  minister  than  those  in  a  town  or  city? 

6.  What  do  you  consider  the  best  definition  of  a  country 
community  ? 

7.*  Compare  the  Church  as  an  organizing  center  in  a 
community  with  any  other  organization  in  the  rural 
community. 

8.  What  do  you  consider  some  of  the  defects  of  the 
individualist  Church? 

9.  Has  emotion  any  legitimate  place  in  the  religious  life? 

10.  Will  communities  be  saved  as  groups  or  as  indi- 
viduals ? 

11.  What  were  some  of  the  limitations  of  the  household 
Church  ? 

12.*  What  features  in  the  household  Church  would  you 
wish  to  conserve? 

13.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the 
competitive  system  in  religious  life? 

14.  If  you  were  a  minister  in  a  household  farming  com- 
munity, what  would  be  the  burden  of  your  message 
to  the  people? 

15.*  Enumerate  the  evil  effects   of  speculation  upon   the 

Church. 
16.*  What    recommendations    for    effective   service    would 

you    make    to    a    minister    working   in    a    community 

where  the  spirit  of  speculation  is  abroad? 
17.*  What  can  a  minister  do  to  get  the  people  in  a  modern 

farming  community  to  make  the  Church  more  helpful 

to  the  people? 
18.    Is  it  easier  for  people  to  cooperate  in  agriculture  than 

in   religion  ? 
19-    What  can  the  Church  do  to  minister  to  the  social  and 

economic  needs  of  all  the  people? 

20.  Should  the  Church  direct  its  main  efforts  upon  winning 
and  training  the  young  people  or  adults  in  a  com- 
munity.   Give  reasons. 

21.  Has  the  Church  in  a  rural  community  an  opportunity 
to  do  more  for  people  than  one  located  in  an  urban 
community? 


2o6        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 
REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  II 

Anderson,  The  Country  Town,  XVI. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  I-III. 

Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  III. 

Boyle,  "The  Passing  of  the  Country  Church,"  The  Outlook, 
May  28,  1904. 

Butterfield,  Chapters  in  Rural  Progress,  XII. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Problem,  III. 

Galloway,  "  Country  Church  Problem  Analyzed,"  The  Inte- 
rior, July  23,  1 910. 

Hayward,  Institutional  Work  for  the  Country  Church,  I. 

Landis,  "  The  Rural  Church,"  Religious  Education,  Decem- 
ber, 1909. 

Raymond,  "The  Church  of  Christ  in  Ruralville,"  Yale  Di- 
vinity Quarterly,  February,  1909. 

Roads,  Rural  Christendom,  XVIII. 

Report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  60-63. 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  III 

Aim:  To  Show  the  Necessity  for  Adequate  Educational 
Facilities  for  Country  Life 

I.    To  what  extent  are  we  under  obligation  to  the  Church 

for  our  secular  system  of  education  ? 
2.*  Why   does  the  state  consider  it  necessary  to  provide 

for  the  education  of  its  youth? 
3.    What  do  you  consider  some  of  the  outstanding  benefits 

of  popular  education? 
4.*  What  contributions  does  the  public  school  make  to  the 

Church  ? 

5.  Why  are  promotion  of  education  and  the  Protestant 
Church  so  closely  associated? 

6.  To   what   extent  is   agricultural   prosperity   dependent 
upon  good  schools? 

7.*  Do  you  believe  that  the  course  of  study  in  a  rural 

school  should  differ  from  that  in  a  city  school?     Give 

reasons. 
8.    Will   it   ever  be   possible   to   eliminate   all   one-room 

schools  in  our  rural  communities?    Give  reasons. 
9.*  What   are  some  of  the  advantages  of  a  centralized 

school  ? 


Questions  and  References  207 

10.  Under  what  conditions  is  it  possible  to  establish  cen- 
tralized schools? 

11.  What  are  some  of  the  requirements,  aside  from  a  well- 
equipped  building,  for  a  first-class  school? 

12.  Name  some  of  the  distinct  contributions  that  the  ex- 
tension work  of  agricultural  colleges  can  make. 

13.  Do  you  believe  that  the  Church  should  promote  agri- 
cultural education  among  the  people?  State  reasons 
for  or  against. 

14.*  What  is  the  aim  of  the  Sunday-school? 

15.  Do  you  believe  that  the  Sunday-school  has  fulfilled  its 
mission  when  it  has  imparted  instruction  regarding 
the  Bible? 

16.  Should  the  Sunday-school  include  in  its  curriculum 
courses  on  missions,  social  service,  patriotism,  and 
good   citizenship  ? 

17.  In  what  ways  can  the  weekly  Sunday-school  teachers' 
meeting  render  service  to  the  local  community? 

18.  Are  the  public  schools  sufficient  to  meet  all  the  needs 
of  a  country  community? 

19.  Is  the  extension  work  of  the  State  agricultural  col- 
leges sufficient  to  meet  all  the  needs  of  the  country 
community? 

20.  Sum  up  in  the  order  of  their  importance  the  principal 
educational  needs  in  our  rural  communities. 

21.*  What  can  the  Church  do  to  meet  these  needs? 


REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 

CHAPTER  III 

Anderson,  The  Country  Town,  24,  217,  252-255. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  IX. 

Bailey,   The  Country  Life   Movement,  61-84. 

Butterfield,   The    Country   Church   and   the   Rural   Problem, 

46-55- 
Butterfield,  Chapters  in  Rural  Progress,  IX,  XVI. 
Carver,  Principles  of  Rural  Economics,  359-361. 
Foght,  The  American  Rural  School,  passim. 
Miller,  The  Problems  of  the  Town  Church,  XX. 
Plunkett,   The   Rural   Life   Problem   of   the   United    States, 

132-135- 
Report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  53-56. 
Roads,  Rural   Christendom,  XIV. 
Vincent,  The  Modern  Sunday  School,  XVII. 


2o8        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  IV 

Aim  :  To  Learn  How  the  Moral  Life  of  the  Rural  Com- 
munity May  Be  Improved 

I,  Is  it  natural  for  people  to  desire  some  form  of  recrea- 
tion and  amusement? 

2.*  Are  amusements  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the 
morals  of  the  people? 

3.  Can  you  give  concrete  incidents  in  which  amusements 
have  affected  the  morals  of  people? 

4.  Would  you  consider  the  barroom  a  place  of  amuse- 
ment? 

5.  If  places  of  amusement  are  closed  by  law,  are  the  citi- 
zens  responsible   for  good   substitutes? 

6.  To  what  extent  shall  the  church  of  a  community  pro- 
vide wholesome  amusements  and  recreation? 

7.  Make  a  list  of  the  wholesome  amusements  a  church 
can  consistently  offer  to  a  community? 

8.  What  are  some  of  the  general  principles  you  would 
adopt  in  furnishing  amusement  and  recreation  through 
the  Church? 

9.  Would  you  offer  these  amusements  only  to  young  peo- 
ple  connected   with   your   church? 

ID.    Under  what  supervision  would  you  offer  amusements 

to  the  people  of  your  community? 
11.*  Enumerate  some  of  the  moral  benefits  that  can  come 

to  young  men  by  participation  in  baseball,  football,  and 

other    athletic    exercises  ? 

12.  What  do  you  consider  some  of  the  benefits  that  ac- 
crue to  an  individual  from  cooperation  in  play? 

13.  State  the  influences  for  good  and  evil  that  the  spirit 
of   speculation   has   upon   individuals? 

14.*  What  Bible  texts  would  you  use  in  preaching  to  men 
in  the  speculative  period? 

15.  What  do  you  consider  the  greatest  need  of  the  man 
mentioned  on  page  90,  who  sent  his  milk  to  Buffalo 
instead  of  Rochester? 

16.  How  would  you  reach  the  man  mentioned  on  page  90, 
who  provided  milk  from  a  grass-fed  cow  to  a  sick 
child  in  the  community,  but  sent  his  milk  from  cows 
fed  on  green  corn  to  the  city? 

17.*  What  recommendations  would  you  make  to  teach  an 
individual  to  practise  the  Golden   Rule? 

18.*  Discuss  lines  of  activity  that  the  Church  can  promote 
to  improve  the  moral  life  of  the  people. 


Questions  and  References  209 

REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  IV 

Anderson,  The   Country  Town,  XVII. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  VI. 

Bailey,   The   Country  Life   Movement,   97-133. 

Butterfield,  Chapters  in  Rural  Progress,  XIV. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Problem, 
36-44. 

Conn,  "  Federation  of  Rural  Social  Forces,"  Charities,  No- 
vember 3,  1908. 

Hajrward,  Institutional  Work  for  the  Country  Church,  V,  IX. 

Hyde,  "  The  Social  Mission  of  the  Country  Church."  Min- 
utes of  the  National  Council  of  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  the  United  States,  Portland,  October,  1901. 

Mead,  Modern  Methods  in  Church  Work,  II,  IX,  XII,  XIX, 
XXI    XXII 

Miller,  The  Problem  of  the  Town  Church,  IX,  XVI. 

Roads,  Rural  Christendom,  XV-XVII. 

Wilson,  Quaker  Hill,  Part  I,  chs.  V,  VII. 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  V 

Aim:  To  Realize  the  Benefits  That  Would  Come  from 
Economic  Cooperation  and  Church  Federation 

1.  What  conditions  among  pioneer  farmers  made  coop- 
eration impossible? 

2.  Why  does  not  the  household  farmer  cooperate  easily 
with  others? 

3.  What  effect  has  the  speculative  spirit  upon  economic 
cooperation  ? 

4.  Name  some  of  the  foremost  examples  of  community 
cooperation  in  the  United  States. 

5.  What  is  the  difference  between  cooperative  farming 
and  a  labor  union? 

6.  What   is  the   difference  between  cooperative   farming 
and   communism? 

7.*  Name  some  of  the  concessions  that  must  be  made  by 
individuals  who  cooperate. 

8.  What  are  some  of  the  direct  benefits  that  accrue  to 
a  community  through  economic  cooperation? 

9.  Enumerate  some  of  the  activities  that  can  be  done 
more  effectively  by  cooperation. 


2IO        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

I  a  What  are  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  Grange  as 
at  present  organized? 

11.  What  lessons  can  we  learn  from  the  results  of  co- 
operation  in   Denmark? 

12.  What  religious  message  would  you  deliver  to  a  com- 
munity that  refused  to  cooperate? 

13.  To  what  extent  is  Church  federation  dependent  upon 
economic  cooperation? 

14.  Name  some  conditions  under  which  you  would  rec- 
commend  the  federation  of  Churches. 

15.  Do  you  believe  that  one  strong  church  can  do  more 
for  a  community  than  several  weak  ones? 

16.  Would  you  recommend  federation  in  a  community 
that  is  increasing  in  population  if  the  churches  were 
fairly  prosperous? 

17.*  Name  some  of  the  sacrifices  that  four  leading  Prot- 
estant communions  would  be  obliged  to  make  if  they 
federated  into  one  body. 

18.*  Name  the  points  of  belief  in  which  there  is  harmony 
of  belief  in   these   communions. 

19.*  Sum  up  the  losses  and  gains  that  would  result  in  such 
a  federation. 

20.  Quote  passages  of  Scripture  that  seem  to  express  the 
spirit  of  unity  and   federation. 

REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  V 

Cooperation. 

Bailey,  The  Country  Life  Movement,  149-164. 

Butterfield,   Chapters  in  Rural   Progress,  XVII. 

Carver,  Principles  of  Rural  Economics,  274,  278. 

Carver,  "  Rural  Economy  as  a  Factor  in  the  Success  of 
the  Church."  Department  of  Social  and  Public  Serv- 
ice, Bulletin  No.  4. 

Plunkett,     The    Rural    Life     Problem    of    the    United 
States,  V. 
Federation. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  X,  XI. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Prob- 
lem, 64-72,  114-116. 

Hooker,  "  The  Problem  of  Interdenominational  Comity 
Among  Country  Churches  in  Home  Missionary  Terri- 
tory; Christianity  Practically  Applied.  Report  of 
Chicago  Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  1893. 


Questions  and  References  211 

Root,  "Overcoming  Our  Overlapping,"  The  Home  Mis- 
sionary,   November,    1908. 

Strong,  The  New  Era,  XIV. 

Wells,  "  How  Two  Country  Churches  Became  One,"  The 
Watchman,  March  17,  1910. 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  VI 

Aim  :  To  Realize  the  Necessity  for  the  Abolition  of  Pov- 
erty AND  the  Generous  Support  of  the  Church 

1.  What  is  the  difference  between  a  pauper  and  a  poor 
man  as  defined  by  the  author? 

2.  How  do  you  account  for  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
tenant   farmers  in  productive  sections? 

3.  How  do  you  account  for  a  larger  proportion  of  poor 
in  the  most  prosperous  States? 

4.  How  do  you  interpret  the  words  of  Jesus :  "  Blessed 
are  ye  poor,  for  yours  is  the  kingdom  of  God  "  ? 

5.  Are  the  poor  more  religious  as  a  rule  than  those  who 
are  wealthy?     Give  reasons. 

6.*  What  selfish  motives  can  you  suggest  for  taking  care 
of  the  poor  in  your  community? 

7.  Quote  passages  of  Scripture  that  command  the  care 
of  the  poor. 

8.  Do  you  believe  that  the  Church,  cooperating  with  the 
people  and  other  agencies,  can  abolish  poverty  in  a 
rural    community  ? 

9.  Name  some  of  the  principles  suggested  by  the  author 
for  successful   church   finances. 

10.  Do  you  believe  in  asking  poor  people  to  contribute 
toward  the  work   of  the   church?     Why? 

II.*  Do  you  believe  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than 
to  receive? 

12.  Name  some  of  the  advantages  of  the  duplex  envelope 
system. 

13.  Should  the  personal  canvass  for  financial  support  be 
conducted  by  the  minister  or  officers  of  the  church? 

14.*  What  obligations  has  a  church  outside  of  its  own 
community  ? 

15.  Quote  passages  of  Scripture  that  illustrate  the  prin- 
ciple and  practise  of  giving. 

16.  How  much  salary  do  you  think  a  minister  should  be 
paid  in  the  country? 

17'.  With  what  class  of  people  in  a  community  should  the 
minister's   salary  compare? 


^12        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

J      i8.  Is  the  author's  estimate  of  a  minister's  salary  fair? 

i      ig.  Do   you   believe   the  ordinary   rural   commimity   can 

'  meet  these  demands? 


REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  VI 

Poverty. 

Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  II,  V. 

Carver,  Principles  of  Rural  Economics,  V. 

Gladden,  Social  Salvation,  II. 

Peabody,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  V. 

Rauschenbusch,     Christianity     and    the     Social     Crisis, 
304,  305. 
Church  Support. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  XV. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Prob- 
lem, 123-129. 

McGarrah,  "  Raising  Money  in  the  Country  Church,"  The 
Herald  and  Presbyter,  May  4,  1910. 

Mead,  Modern  Methods  in  Church  Work,  XXXIX. 

filler.  The  Problem  of  the  Town  Church,  XVIII. 

Rauschenbusch,     Christianity     and     the     Social     Crisis, 
291-298. 

Roads,  Rural  Christendom,  XXII. 


QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  VII 

Aim:   To  I^arn   How  the  Church  May  Render  Social 
Service  to  the  People  of  the  Community 

1.  Define  social  service. 

2.  What  dp  you  understand  by  the  marginal  people  of 
a  community? 

3.*  To  what  class  of  people  did  Jesus  minister  chiefly? 

4.  Did  Jesus  confine  his  ministry  to  the  souls  of  men? 

5.  What  is  the  difference  between  serving  individuals 
and  serving  communities? 

6.*  Is  it  mor«  important  to  minister  to  the  poor  or  to 
abolish  the  conditions  that  cause  poverty? 

7.  Shall  the  Church  direct  its  ministry  to  the  poor,  and 
neglect  the  rich? 

;8.    Do   you    believe    the    Wisconsin    minister    rendered 


Questions  and  References  215 

Christian  service  when  he  led  the  people  in  organizing^ 
a  cooperative  store? 
9.    Would  he  have  been  able  to  continue  his  church  work 
if  he  had  not  aided  them  to  prosper  financially? 

10.  Name  some  of  the  advantages  for  social  service  that 
a  minister  has  who  has  knowledge  of  scientific  farming. 

11.  Would    you    advise    theological    students    who    enter 
country  parishes  to  take  agricultural  courses? 

12.*  Enumerate   forms  of  social  service  for  a  community 

in  which  a  minister  should  lead. 
13.    What  lessons  may  we  learn  from  the  achievements  of 

Mr.  Hares,  the  Minnesota  minister,  Mr.  Adams,  and 

Dr.  Persons? 
14.*  What  do  you  consider  some  of  the  vital  principles  iti 

a  campaign  for  social  service  in  a  community? 

15.  Who  are  the  marginal  people  in  your  community? 

16.  What  is  being  done  for  them? 

17.*  Do  you  believe   the  Church  should  engage  in   social 

service  for  the  community? 
18.    Quote  passages  of  Scripture  that  would  warrant  the 

Church  in  engaging  in  social  service. 

REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  Vn 

Social  Teachings  of  Jesus. 

Brown,  The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit,  H, 

Gladden,   Social    Salvation,   I. 

Peabody,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  II. 

Rauschenbusch,  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis,  11. 

Strong,  The  Challenge  of  the  City,  VI. 

Strong,  The  Next  Great  Awakening,  VI. 
Social  Service. 

Anderson,  The  Country  Town,  XVII. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  V. 

Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  V. 

Hayward,  Institutional  Work  for  Country  Churches,  III, 
V,  VIII,  IX,  XI. 

Mead,  Modern   Methods   in   Church   Work,   XIX,   XXI, 
XXII    XXVI    XXX 

Miller,  The  Problems  of  the  Town  Church,  IX,  XVI. 

Roads,  Rural   Christendom,  VIII-XVII. 

Strong,  The  New  Era,  XII. 

Taylor,   "The  Civic  Function  of  the  Country  Church," 
The  Chautauquan,  December,  1902. 


214        The  Church  of  the  Open  Country 

QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  VIII 

Aim  :  To  Realize  the  Importance  of  Leadership  in  a  Rural 
Community 

1.  Trace  the  four  phases  of  farming  described  by  the 
author. 

2.  Name  som^  of  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in 
rural   communities. 

3.  Do  you  believe  that  farming  in  the  organized  period 
is  on  a  more  substantial  basis  than  in  any  previous 
era? 

4.  How  do  you  account  for  the  lack  of  leadership  among 
rural  people? 

5.  Why  do  leaders  as  a  rule  arise  in  towns  and  cities? 

6.  What  type  of  leaders  will  reunions  and  anniversaries 
develop  in  a  rural  community? 

7.  What  type  of  leaders  will  religious  festivals  develop? 

8.  How  can  leaders  be  developed  through  revival 
services  ? 

9.*  Is  the  Church  as  a  symbol  broader  in  its  service  than 
the  Grange,  lodge,  or  political  party?     Explain  fully. 

10.  Shall  the  Church  in  its  leadership  recognize  class  dis- 
tinctions? 

11.  Did  the  New  England  minister  make  a  serious  mis- 
take in  conducting  funerals  by  not  taking  account  of 
local  sentiments?     Give  reasons. 

12.*  What  are  some  of  the  qualifications  for  a  minister  to 

be  successful  in  a  rural  community? 
13.*  In   selecting    a    minister,    would    you    prefer    a    good 

preacher  or  a  good  organizer?     Why? 

14.  Which  type  of  minister  will  develop  the  most  local 
leadership  ? 

15.  To  what  extent  is  the  church-member  responsible  for 
the  success  or  failure  of  a  church? 

16.*  What  do  you  consider  the  functions  of  the  Church? 

17.*  Just  how  may  we  make  the  Church  of  our  community 
the  dominating  symbol?     Discuss  fully. 

18.  Will  cooperation  and  federation  aid  the  Church  in 
holding  a  more  commanding  position  before  the  com- 
munity ? 

19.*  What  recommendations  can  you  make  to  develop  and 
strengthen  leadership  among  country  people? 


Questions  and  References  •  215 

REFERENCES  FOR  ADVANCED  STUDY 
CHAPTER  VIII 

Leadership. 

Anderson,  The   Country  Town,  XVI. 

Ashenhurst,  The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  XVIII. 

Beard,  The  Story  of  John  Frederic  Oberlin,  passim. 

Butterfield,  Chapters  in   Rural  Progress,  XII. 

Butterfield,  The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Prob- 
lem, V. 

Hayward,  Institutional  Work  for  the  Country  Church,  II. 

Hoyt,  "  The  Call  of  the  Country  Church."  Edited  by 
John  R.  Mott,  124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street,  New- 
York,  1909. 

McNutt,  "  Modern  Methods  in  the  Country  Church," 

Report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  60-65. 

Roads,  Rural   Christendom,  XVIII-XXIII. 

Strong,  The  New  Era,  XIII. 


APPEND-IXES 
APPENDIX  A 

HOW   DENMARK  DID  IT 

After  several  years'  war  with  England  in  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte's time,  Denmark  was  financially  bankrupt,  and  with  a 
gloomy  prospect  of  another  war, — this  time  at  the  southern 
border-line,   with   Schleswig-Holstein   and   Germany. 

Bishop  Grundtvig  brooded  over  his  countrymen's  dulness 
and  stupidity.  He  wrote  and  preached  to  awaken  and  stir 
up  the  people  to  patriotism  and  to  revive  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  masses.  With  prophetic  sense,  he  saw  that,  if  salvation 
is  to  come,  it  must  come  from  within,  through  the  enlighten- 
ment of  all  the  people,  and  that  the  individual  must  be  edu- 
cated to  be  more  virtuous,  more  intelligent,  more  skilful, 
and  more  industrious,  and  to  have  a  true,  honest  impulse 
toward  self-reform. 

His  eloquent  appeal  aroused  considerable  enthusiasm;  hiS' 
hearers  opened  their  eyes ;  certain  thinkers  and  statesmen 
reflected  for  themselves;  others  smiled,  scorned,  and  said, 
"  Optimism ! " 

The  movement,  however,  gained  foothold,  and  the  first 
small  Folk  High  School  was  started  by  private  individuals, 
near  the  southern  border-line,  in  1844.  There  were  only 
about  twenty  pupils  during  a  term  for  several  years.  The 
Queen  became  interested  in  Grundtvig's  philosophy,  and 
there  was  talk  about  founding  a  popular  State  High  School. 
But  the  King,  Christian  the  Eighth,  who  had  promised  aid, 
died,  in  1848,  and  this  plan  was  dropped  for  the  time  being. 

Probably  this  was  the  best  for  the  Folk  High  Schools  as 
they  now  are.  Instead  of  one  large  state  school,  private 
schools  were  established,  and  in  the  year  1852  the  second 
Folk  High  School  was  opened,  out  in  the  country,  by  a  great 
pedagogical  genius,  C.  Kold.  It  proved  a  success,  and  a 
few  other  schools  were  started  during  the  next  ten  to 
twelve  years.  Kold's  method  and  personality  had  a  great 
influence  upon  the  movement  in  the  future. 

Folk  High  Schools  and  Agricultural  Schools  were  estab- 
lished, and  have  increased  from  year  to  year,  until  at  present 
there  are  from  seventy  to  eighty  Folk  High  Schools  and 
twenty  to  twenty-five  Agricultural  Schools  scattered  through- 

217 


2i8  Appendix  A 

out  Denmark.  All  of  these  schools  are  owned  by  private 
individuals,  but  receive  aid  from  the  government,  in  propor- 
tion to  their  size.  Prospective  pupils  may  also  readily  re- 
ceive financial  aid  from  the  national  and  county  governments. 

By  years  of  experience,  it  has  been  found  more  practical 
to  have  the  High  Schools  independent  of  the  Agricultural 
Schools,  but  the  leading  spirit  is  the  same,  and  the  most 
proficient  agricultural  student  has  generally  spent  one  term 
at  the  High  School. 

All  these  schools  are  boarding-schools.  The  professor* 
and  teachers,  with  their  families  and  students,  associate  to- 
gether like  one  large  family,  and  even  at  the  largest  ones, 
with  two  hundred  or  more  pupils,  they  have  at  least  dinner 
together. 

Grundtvig  lived  to  see  his  idea  carried  into  execution.  He 
attended  to  his  voluminous  writing  and  Church  work  to  the 
last,  preaching  his  last  sermon  in  Vartow  Church  at  Copen- 
hagen a  few  days  before  he  died  (1872),  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
nine  years. 

The  population  of  Denmark  is  some  three  million,  and 
about  two  fifths  of  the  inhabitants  are  land-tillers.  Roughly 
estimated,  about  24,000  young  men  and  women  are  annually 
introduced  to  the  world,  so  to  speak.  Of  these,  about  8,000 
go  to  the  Folk  High  Schools  every  year,  for  at  least  one 
term,  which  is  generally  five  months  in  the  winter  for  men, 
and  three  months  in  the  summer  for  women.  Others  go 
to  the  university,  seminaries,  and  technical  schools,  or  trade 
schools. 

Naturally,  it  would  seem  incredible,  to  people  unfamiliar 
with  this  method  of  teaching,  that  the  students  in  the  Folk 
High  School  could  acquire  such  education,  in  a  compara- 
tively short  time,  as  is  frequently  attributed  to  these  schools. 

The  public  schools  are  of  the  highest  standard,  and  are 
equal  to  the  public  schools  in  any  other  country,  so  that 
the  youths  when  entering  the  Folk  High  Schools  are  fairly 
well  educated  in  the  common  branches  of  study. 

At  least  eighteen  years  of  age  is  generally  required  for 
admission  to  the  Folk  High  Schools  (there  is  no  maximum 
age),  as  at  this  age  a  person  usually  grasps  new  ideas  easily. 
They  readily  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  school,  and  give 
close  attention  to  their  work — which  is  done  without  any 
examinations. 

The  teaching  and  instruction  are  usually  in  the  form  of 
lectures  on  historical,  literary,  scientific,  religious,  and  other 
subjects,  the  purpose  of  all  of  which  is  to  awaken  individual 
personality  and  the  power  of  thinking,  and  inspire  to  ac- 
tivity the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life,  by  popularizing  learn- 


N.  F.   S.  GRUNDTVIG 


Appendix  A  219 

ing.  This  broadens  the  student's  view  of  his  surroundings 
and  the  world  in  general. 

The  course  in  the  agricultural  schools  consists  of  lectures 
and  practical  demonstrations  of  all  work  connected  with  a 
farm. 

I  might  also  add  that  music,  singing,  and  gymnastics  play 
an  important  part  in  both  of  these  schools.  Undoubtedly 
the  majority  leave  them  with  their  senses  awakened,  with 
an  enlarged  view  of  life,  and  with  an  impulse  of  true  Chris- 
tianity, although  these  schools  are  not  what  would  be  called 
religious  schools,  as  religion  is  left  to  the  student's  free  will. 
Yet,  there  is  an  uplifting  religious  atmosphere  about  them 
which  is  noticeable. 

These  youths,  naturally,  become  members,  and  are  among 
the  leaders,  of  the  many  different  cooperative  societies  which 
cover  practically  everything  connected  with  rural  Denmark's 
welfare,  even  to  the  smallest  detail,  including  the  importa- 
tion of  general  supplies  and  exportation  and  sale  of  their 
products. 

They  have  their  own  representatives  in  the  congress,  who 
are  elected  from  among  themselves,  and  at  present  comprise 
the  leading  political  party. 

The  present  members  of  the  King's  Cabinet  are  more  or 
less  directly  interested  in  the  Folk  High  School  movement. 
Prime  Minister  Berntsen  has  been  a  Folk  High  School 
teacher,  and  the  Minister  of  Education,  Appel,  is  a  teacher, 
and  president  of  the  largest  Folk  High  School.  The  other 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  plain 
farmers,  educated  at  these  schools. 

The  friendships  formed  during  the  High  School  course 
are  not  severed  after  the  student's  departure.  They  have 
founded  societies,  which  are  scattered  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  in  many  cases  have  erected  their  own  buildings, 
with  hotel  accommodations.  One  of  the  largest  organizations 
of  this  kind  is  at  Copenhagen,  and  has  about  six  hundred 
active  members. 

In  these  societies,  members  and  friends  assemble  amid 
home-like  surroundings  for  social  and  educational  purposes, 
and  they  thus  retain  the  helpful  influence  which  they  acquired 
as  students  at  the  schools. 

They  have  also  built  numerous  churches  throughout  the 
country,  to  which  ministers  are  sent  who  have  been  chosen 
by  the  congregation.  Up  to  a  few  years  ago,  the  people 
had  little  to  say  about  the  choice  of  the  clergymen,  because 
the  established  Church,  which  is  Lutheran,  is  under  the  direct 
control  of  the  state,  but  the  present  legislature's  tendency  is 
to  a  greater  freedom  for  the  Church. 


APPENDIX  B 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

To  prepare  a  complete  list  of  books,  periodicals,  references, 
and  pamphlet  literature  on  this  subject  would  be  almost  an 
endless  task,  and  probably  result  in  some  important  omissions. 
It  has  therefore  seemed  wise  to  print  a  selected  list. 

General 

Anderson,  W  L.    The  Country  Town.    1906.    Baker  &  Tay- 
lor Co.,  New  York.    $1.00,  net. 

A  careful  study  of  rural  evolution,  treating  the  changed 
conditions,  character,  selection  and  environment,  and  so- 
cial reconstruction.     Confined  to  New  England. 
Bailey,    L.    H.    American    Agriculture   Cyclopedia,   4   Vols. 
1907.     Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.     $20.00. 

Exhaustive  treatment  of   farms,  climates,  soils,  crops, 
animals,  and  the  relation  of  the  farmer  to  the  community. 
Bailey,  L.  H.    The  Country  Life  Movement  in  the  United 
States,  1911.    Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.    $1.25,  net. 

A  discussion  of  the  country-life  movement.     Omits  a 
treatment  of  the  relation  of  the  Church. 
Bailey,  L.  H.    The  State  and  the  Farmer.    1908.    Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York.    $1.25. 

An  excellent  book  on  rural  economics  and  organiza- 
tion. 
Butterfield,  K.  L.    Chapters  in  Rural  Progress.     1908.    Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago.    $1.00,  net. 

An  analysis  of  some  of  the  more  significant  phases  of 
the  rural  problem,  and  a  description  of  some  of  the 
agencies  at  work  in  solving  it.  Perhaps  the  best  gen- 
eral book  on  the  subject. 
Carver,  T.  N.  Principles  of  Rural  Economics.  191X.  Ginn 
&  Co.,  Boston.     $1.30. 

Includes  a  discussion  of  general  principles,  historical 
sketch,  factors  in  production,  management,  distribution, 
and  profits:  Should  be  read  by  every  student  of  rural 
life. 

220 


Appendix  B  221 

Plunkett,  Sir  Horace.    The  Rural  Life  Problem  in  the  United 
States.     1910.     Macmillan    Co.,    New   York.    $1.25. 

Notes  by  a  keen  observer,  based  upon  thirty-six  years' 
experience  in  Ireland  and  America.  He  pleads  for  or- 
ganization for  "  better  farming,  better  business,  and  bet- 
ter living." 
Pratt,  E.  A.  The  Organization  of  Agriculture.  1904.  E.  P. 
Button,  New  York.    $2.00,  net. 

An  excellent  work  describing  what  is  being  done  in 
the  principal  countries  of  Europe  and  America  toward 
the  better  organization  of  the  farming  interests. 
Report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  Senate  Document, 
No.  705.  Government  Printing  Press,  Washington.  For 
sale  by  Sturgis  and  Walton,  New  York.    75  cents,  net. 

The  result  of  a  survey  by  experts  under  the  direction 
of  the  United  States  Government. 
Taylor,    H.    C.    Agricultural    Economics.    1905.    Macmillan 
Co..  New  York.     $1.25. 

An   excellent   manual   for  the  study  of  the  economic 
principles   underlying  agricultural   problems. 
Wilson,   W.   H.     Quaker   Hill.     1907.     W.   H.   Wilson,   156 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.     $1.25. 
A  sociological  survey  of  Quaker  Hill,  New  York. 


The  Country  Church 

Abbott,  E.  H.    Religious  Life  in  America.    1902.    Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York.    $1.00. 

A   record   of   personal   observations   on   religious  life, 
based  upon  a  journey  through  eighteen  States. 
Ashenhurst,  J.  O.    The  Day  of  the  Country  Church.     1910. 
Funk  &  Wagnalls,  New  York.     $1.00,  net. 

A  treatment  of  the  opportunity  of  the  country  Church 
based    upon    experience.      A    stimulating    and    helpful 
volume. 
Beard,  A.  F.    The   Story  of  John   Frederic  Oberlin.     1909. 
Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.     $1.25. 

The  story  of  the  marvelous  work  of  Oberlin  of  Wal- 
dersbach.     Indispensable  as  an  account   of  achievement 
under  most  difficult  circumstances. 
Butterfield,  K.  L.    The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Prob- 
lem.    191 1.    University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago.    $1.00. 
A  series  of  lectures  delivered  at  Hartford  Theological 
Seminary.     Suggestive  and  constructive  in  its  message. 
Hayward,  C.  E.    Institutional  Work  for  the  Country  Church. 


222  Appendix  B 

1900.    Free  Press  Association,  Burlington,  Vt.    50  cents. 

Contains  many  valuable  hints  for  eflfective  work. 
Roads,  Charles.    Rural  Christendom.    1909.    American  Sun- 
day School  Union,  Philadelphia.     90  cents. 

A  discussion  of  the  rural  problem,  the  agencies  for 
the  spread  of  Christian  principles,  and  the  place  of  the 
Church  in   Christianizing  the  community. 

Education 

Burton,  Ernest  D.,  and  Matthews,  Shailer.  Principles  and 
Ideals  of  the  Sunday  School.  1903.  University  of  Chi- 
cago Press,  Chicago.    $1.00. 

One  of  the  best  books  on  pedagogy  in  the  Sunday- 
school. 
Cope,   Henry  F.    The   Modern   Sunday  School   in   Principle 
and  Practice.    1907.    Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York. 
$1.00,  net. 

A  helpful  statement  of  the  history,  organization,  prin- 
ciples, and  practice  of  the  modern  Sunday-school. 
Foght,  H.  W.     The  American  Rural  School.     1910.     Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York.     $1.25,  net. 

A  most  practical  book,  covering  every  phase  of  rural 
life,  especially  written   for  rural   school-teachers,  super- 
intendents,  and   school-board   members. 
Kern,  O.  J.    Among  Country  Schools.    1906.    Ginn  &  Co., 
Boston,  Mass.    $1.25. 

Written   by  a   county  superintendent  of   wide  experi- 
ence.    Treats  of  every  important  phase  of  rural-school 
activity. 
Vincent,  J.  H.    The  Modern  Sunday  School.    1900.    Eaton  & 
Mains,  New  York.    $1.00. 

Chapter   XVII   deals  especially  with  the  rural  school. 
Report  of  Committee  of  Twelve  on  The  Rural  School.    Pro- 
ceedings of  the  National  Education  Association.  1897. 
Report  of  Committee  on  Industrial  Education  in  Schools  for 
Rural  Communities.    Proceedings  of  the  National  Edu- 
cational Association,   1907. 
Best  discussions  of  fundamental  problems. 

Christian  Sociology 

Brown,  C.  R.  The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit. 
1906.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.    $1.25. 

A  message  to  ministers,  setting  forth  the  broad  oppor- 
tunities for  social  uplift. 


Appendix  B  223 

Earp,    Edwin    L.    The    Social    Engineer.    191 1.    Eaton    & 
Mains,  New  York.     $1.50,   net. 

A  treatment  of  the  essentials   for  a  successful  social 
worker,  and  a  statement  of  the  activities  in  which  one 
may  engage. 
Gladden,    Washington.     Social     Salvation.     1902.    Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  New  York.    $1.00. 

Lectures  delivered  before  the  students  of  the  Divinity 
School  of  Yale  University.    A  discussion  of  some  of  the 
social  problems,  with  suggested  remedies. 
Henderson,  C.  R.     Social  Duties  from  a  Christian  Point  of 
View.    1909.    University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago.   $1.25. 
A  text-book  for  the  study  of  social  problems.    Valuable 
for  classes  in  Christian  Sociology.     Has  a  good  chapter 
on  social  duties  in  rural  communities. 
Jenks,  J.  W.    Social  Teachings  of  Jesus.    1906.    Y,  M.  C.  A. 
Press,  New  York.    75  cents. 

The  social  aspects  of  Christ's  teachings  as  related  to 
the  problems  of  modern  life,  treated  in  a  twelve  weeks' 
course. 
Patten,  S.  N.    The  New  Basis  of  Civilization,     1907.     Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York.    $1.00. 

An  interpretation  of  the  meaning  and  significance  of 
recent   social    changes    with    which    the   practical    social 
worker  is   engaged. 
Peabody,  Francis  G.    Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question. 
1910.     Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.     $1.50. 

An  examination  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  with  regard 
to  problems  of  social  life. 
Rauschenbusch,  Walter.    Christianity  and  the   Social   Crisis. 
1907.     Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.     $1.50. 

An  able  discussion  of  the  social  aims  of  Jesus  and 
the  challenge  to  the  Church  to  carry  out  the  work.  One 
of  the  most  stimulating  books  on  the  social  question. 


Methods  of  Church  Work 

Gladden,  Washington.     Parish  Problems.    Century  Co.,  New 

York.    $2.00.     (Out  of  print.) 
A  helpful  discussion  of  the  various  problems  connected 

with  the  activities  of  the  Church,  Sunday-school,  and  the 

community.     Contains  a  chapter  on  the  needs  of  country 

churches. 
Hayward,  C.  E.    Institutional  Work  for  the  Country  Church. 

1900.    Free  Press  Association,  Burlington,  Vt.    50  cents. 


224  Appendix  B 

A  practical   handbook  for  country  pastors,   describing 
specific  methods  that  have  been  found  practical. 
Mead,    G.   W.     Modern    Methods   in    Church   Work.     1903. 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York.     $1.50. 
As  the  title  suggests,  a  discussion  of  methods  of  work. 
Miller,    George    A.     The    Problems    of    the    Town    Church. 
1902.     Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York.     75  cents. 
Devoted  almost  wholly  to  methods  of  work. 


Periodical  Articles  and  Pamphlets 
I 

A  Chance  for  the  Country  Church.    The  Presbyterian  Ad- 
vance, September  8,  1910. 
Anthony,  A.  W.    The  Problem  of  the  New  England  Country 

Church.    Homiletic  Review,  July,   1899. 
Biglow,  W.  B.    The  Country  Church  in  America.    Scribner's 

Magazine,  November,  1897. 
Boyle,   J.    E.     The   Passing  of   the   Country   Church.     The 

Outlook,  May  28,  1904. 
Carver,   Prof.   T.   N.     Rural   Economy  as   a   Factor  in   the 

Success  of  the  Church.    Department  of  Social  and  Public 

Service,    Bulletin    No.    4,   20    pp.      American    Unitarian 

Association,  25  Beacon  St.,  Boston. 
Conn,  G.  W.    Federation  of  Rural  Social  Forces.    Charities, 

November  3,   1908. 
Coulter,  J.  L.     Organization  Among  Farmers  of  the  United 

States.     Yale  Review,  November,   1909. 
Country  Life  and  the  Church.     The  Outlook,  April  10,  1909. 
Galloway,  T.  W.    Country  Church  Problem  Analyzed.    The 

Interior,  July  23,  1910. 
Gard,  H.    The  Autobiography  of  a  Country  School  Teacher. 

World's  Work,  May,  1910. 
Gilbert,  G.  H.    How  One  Man  Saved  a  Town.    The  Outlook, 

April  18,  1908. 
Gill,  C.  O.     The  Country  Church  and  Recreation.     Auburn 

Seminary  Record,  March,  1910. 
Goodenough,  A.   H.     How  to  Reach  the  Rural  Population. 

The  Christian  Advocate,  December  29,  1904. 
Hartt,  R.   L.     A  New  England   Hill   Town.     The  Atlantic 

Monthly,  1899. 
Hartt,  R.  L.    The  Regeneration  of  Rural  New  England.    The 

Outlook,  March  3,  10,  17,  31,  1900. 
Hitchcock,  E.   P.     Cooperation  in   Country  Life.     Country 

Life,  October,  1909. 


Appendix  B  22^ 

Hooker,  G.  E.  The  Problem  of  Interdenominational  Comity 
Among  Country  Churches  in  Home  Missionary  Territory, 
Christianity  Practically  Applied.  Report  of  Chicago 
Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  1893. 

Hoyt,  A.  H.  The  Call  of  the  Country  Church.  Young 
Men's   Christian  Association  Press,   New  York. 

Hyde,  W.  D.  Impending  Paganism  in  New  England.  The 
Forum,  June,   1892. 

Hyde,  W.  D.  The  Social  Mission  of  the  Country  Church. 
Minutes  of  the  National  Council  of  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  the  United  States,  Portland,  October,  1901. 

Kennedy,  A.  J.  Religious  Overlapping.  The  Independent, 
April  9,  May  7,  1908. 

Landis,  E.  B.  A  Country  Minister  at  Work.  Rural 
Manhood,  Vol.  I,  No.  9. 

Landis,  R  B.  Rural  Church  in  Its  Educational  and  Social 
Opportunities.     Religious  Education,  Vol.  XV,  No.  5. 

McGarrah,  A.  F.  Raising  Money  in  the  Country  Church. 
The  Herald  and  Presbyter,  May  4,  1910. 

McNutt,  M.  B.  Modern  Methods  in  the  Country  Church. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York. 

Moral  Problems  of  the  Farm.    The  Outlook,  May  29,  1909. 

Nesmith,  G.  T.  The  Rural  Church.  American  Journal  of 
Sociology,  May,  1903. 

Plunkett,  Sir  Horace.  Satisfaction  in  Farm  Life.  The  Out- 
look, January  20,  1910. 

Proceedings  of  the  Conference  on  the  Problems  of  the  Rural 
Church  in  New  England.  Meeting  held  in  Boston,  Jan- 
uary 18,  19,  1909.  Report  of  N.  E.  Country  Church 
Associations.  Address  H.  K.  Rowe,  Newton  Center, 
Mass. 

Taylor,  Graham.  The  Civic  Function  of  the  Country 
Church.    The  Chautauquan,  December,  1902. 

The  Country  Church.    The  Westminster,  February  12,  1910. 

The  Country  Church  and  Its  Social  Problem.  The  Outlook, 
August  18,  1906. 

The  Country  Church  and  the  Making  of  Manhood.  The 
Homiletic  Review,  August,  1907.  Pamphlet  reprint. 
6  pp.     ID  cents,  postpaid. 

The  Useless  Tragedy  of  the  Farmer's  Wife.  The  Delineator, 
June,  1909. 

Two  Country  Church  Numbers.  The  Congregationalist  and 
Christian  World,  July,  1904,   1905. 

Wells,  G.  F.  An  Answer  to  the  New  England  Country 
Church  Question.  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  April,  1907. 
Pamphlet  reprint.     10  pp.     10  cents,  postpaid. 


226  Appendix  B 

Wells,  G.  F.    Church  Federation  as  a  Practical  Proposition. 

The   Christian   Advocate,   New  York,   March   29,   April 

5,  1906. 
Wells,  G.   F.     How  Two   Country   Churches   Became   One. 

The  Watchman,  March  17,  1910. 
Wright,    G.    F.    The    Country    Church.    The    Bibliotheca 

Sacra,  April,  1890. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abandoned  farms  in  Illinois, 

30 
Absentee    landlordism,    evils 

of,  126 
Academies,  era  of,  63 
Adams,  Rev.   Clair  S.,  work 

of,  16s 
Agricultural      colleges,      61 ; 

demonstration  in  Texas,  62 
Agriculture  and  the  country 

school,  58 
Albion,     New     York,     social 

work  in,   164 
Alien  invasion,  the,  13 
"All  day  sings"  in  Alabama, 

Altruism,  155 

American  farm  life,  four 
phases,  5,  8,  11,  14,  16 

American  ideals  and  house- 
hold farming,  31 

American  Journal  of  Soci- 
ology, quoted,  24 

American  rural  life  a  na- 
tional issue,  3 

Amish,  the,   106,   132 

Among  Rural  Schools,  re- 
ferred to,  52 

Amusement,  old  Iviews  of, 
79;  present  ideas  of,  78, 
79 

Anderson,  Dr.  Wilbert  L., 
quoted,  78;  referred  to,  4, 
10 

"  Anniversary  Day,"  James- 
burg,  New  Jersey,  181,  182 


Anniversary  days  in  farming 
communities,   178,   182,   183 

Annual  Report  of  the  Winne- 
bago County  Schools,  re- 
ferred to,  52 

Apple,  bees,  78;  country,  164; 
marketing.  Hood  Valley, 
Oregon,   113 

Artificial  land  values,  12 

Atlantic  Monthly,  referred  to, 
6 


B 


Bailey,  Professor  Liberty  H., 
quoted,  72,  100;  referred  to, 
3,  151,  164 

Baptists,  131 

Baptist  Young  People's 
Union,  160 

Beard,  A.  R,  105 

Beaver,  ex-Governor,  quoted 
on  ministerial  training,  163, 
164 

Beissel,  Conrad,  influence  at 
Ephrata,  106 

Bellebuckle,  Tennessee,  school 
at,  129 

Bement,  Illinois,  out-station 
work,  165 

Boll  weevil,  17,   18 

Bone,  Mr.  R.  E.,  leadership 
of,  59 

Bowen,  Miss,  work  of,  166 

Boy  organizations  in  house- 
hold Church,  31 

Braddock,  J.  L.,  long  pas- 
torate of,  191 


229 


230 


Index 


Breadwinners,  128,  130 
"Breaking  Home  Ties,"  pic- 
ture title,  9 
Breeze,   Rev.   Mr.,   good   re- 
sults of  canvass,  141,  142 
*'  Brush   arbor "    churches   in 
southwestern    States,    168, 
169 
Budget  system,  143,  144 
Butterfield,  K.  L.,  quoted,  2, 
22,  154 

C 

California  fruit.  See  PaciHc 
Coast  fruit  growers 

Canadian  conditions,  32,  33 

Carney,  Miss  Mabel,  referred 
to,  52 

Carver,  Thomas  Nixon,  quot- 
ed, 22,  6z,  91,  94,  126 

Cash,  in  speculative  era,   12, 

39,  40 
Causes  of  rural  decay,  3 
Cazenovia,  New  York,  166 
Census  of  19 JO,  referred  to, 

128 
Centralization  of  schools,  56, 

60 
Changes  offer  opportunity,  92 
Charity  Organization  Society 

of  New  York  City,  134 
Chautauqua  enthusiasm,  64 
Children's    religious    training 

desired,  66 
Christ.    See  Jesus  Christ 
Christianity,  leavening  power 

of.  93 
Christmas      for      community 

celebration,  19,  183 
Church,  a  center,  25 ;  closely 

related    to    community,    23, 

24;    cooperation,    106,    107; 

corresponding  to   the   four 

phases  of  farming,  5-20,  25- 

44;  the  community  symbol, 

186.       See     also     Country 

Church 


Church  attendance  in  a  Mis- 
souri township,  16 
Church  heart  enlarged,  160 
Church  of  England,  132 
Church  subsidies  withdrawn, 

63 
Churches   profit  by  scientific 

farming,  62,  63 
Civil  War  effects,  38,  109 
Classroom     instruction      for 

agriculture,  45 
Coal  lands,  12,  13 
College  graduate,  work  of,  in 

Illinois,  167 
Combination  and  cooperation 

in  business  life,  7 
Comment  on  the  dead  in  New 

England,  190 
Committee    on    Morals    and 

Rural  Conditions,  168 
Common  project  prized,  140, 

143 

Common  school  system,  an 
outgrowth  of  religious  de- 
votion, 49;  lessened  rural 
interest  in,  50,  51 ;  proposed 
improvements  of,  52-60. 
See  also  Schools  for  the 
country 

Common  things  and  the 
Church  visitor,  161 

Community,  and  the  Church, 
160;  and  the  household,  44; 
defined,  24,  25 ;  feeling  lack- 
ing in  New  England,  135, 
136;  institutions,  109;  tra- 
dition in  Pennsylvania,  19 

Community  leadership,  20, 
176-197 

"  Company  houses,"  87 

Competition,  religious  and 
other,  34,  35 

Congregational  Conference  of 
Massachusetts,  168 

Consecrated  dues,  95 

Consecration  of  prosperity 
and  wealth,  39,  139,  151,  152 


Index 


231 


Conservatism,  33 
Consolidation  of  schools,  56, 

57 
Continent,  The,  100 
Conversion  the  object,  186 
Cooperating     fruit     growers, 

113,  "4 

Cooperation,  loi,  113;  and 
competition,  89;  and  fed- 
eration, 43;  in  Denmark, 
115,  217-219 

Cooperative  tillage  not  com- 
petitive, 42,  43 

Corn  crop,  enemies  of,  61 

Cornell  University  experts,  62 

Cotton  crop,  18;  enemies  of, 
61 

Coulter,  Professor  John  Lee, 
quoted,  38 

Counsel,  Sunday-school  meet- 
ing for,  70 

Country  Church,  as  affected 
by  phases  of  country  life, 
5-36,  100-124;  as  leader  and 
organizing  center  of  the 
community,  22-25,  44-46,  75, 
1 1 8- 1 24,  152,  176-202;  duty 
to  marginal  people,  130-137, 
156-173;  financial  methods, 
138-144;  minister's  support, 
144-150;  relation  to  recrea- 
tion, 79-85,  91,  95-97,  172 

Country  Life  Commission, 
the,  3 

Country  store  a  meeting- 
place,  179 

Country  Town,  The,  4,  6 

Cucumber  enterprise,  163 

Cultivating  community  sense, 
19,  20 

D 

Dairy  and  orchard,  44 
Danforth     and     Connellsville 

road,  condition  of,  15 
Degenerates  a  menace,  n 
Degeneracy  asserted,  3 


Delaware  farmers,  ii2 
Democracy  not  equality,  177 
Denmark,    reco  nstructed 
through  education  and  co- 
operation,   49,    so,    114-118, 
196,  217-219 
Development    of     Protestant 
denominations  from  pover- 
ty, 131 
Devine,  Dr.  Edward  T.,  quot- 
ed, 134 
Devotional   meeting  of   Sun- 
day-school leaders,  71 
Divisions,  causes  of,  187,  189 
Doak,      Samuel,      at      Nola 

Chucky  River,  188 
Dunkers,  106,  132 


Easter  in  community  observ- 
ance, 184 

Eastern  Shore  lands,  112 

Eastern  tenacity  of  own- 
ership, 93 

Economic,  care  of  the  poor, 
137;  causes  of  rural  decay,  4 

Economic  unity  a  source  of 
strength,  108 

Education,  phases  of  rural,  in 
United  States,  60-64;  i" 
Denmark,  115.  See  also 
Common  school  system 

Elwood,  Professor  Charles 
A.,  quoted,  24 

Emotional  appeal  in  Church 
work,  26,  27 

Emphasis  on  country  values, 
20 

Endowed  church,  the,  109 

Enemies  of  the  Church :  ex- 
ploited lands,  14;  farm 
speculation,  11;  group  de- 
generacy, 8;  individualism, 
5 ;  summary,  16 

English  language  and  the 
aliens,   171 


232 


Index 


Entertainments,         principles 

governing,  95,  96 
Enthusiasm  and  idealism,  64 
Envelope  system,  139,   143 
Ephrata  University,  106 
Epworth  League,  160 
Evangelism,  29,  69,  71 ;  Easter 

advantages,  184 
Evangelist,  duty  of,  165 
Exaltation  of  giving,  13 
Expenses,   a   minister's,    145- 

148;     his     casual     income, 

148,  149 
Experiment  farm  at  the  John 

Swaney  school,  58 
Exploitation  of  farm  life,  14; 

a  bitter  process,  37 


Factory  labor  conditions  in 
the  South,  87 

Faith  and  poverty,  133 

Family,  altar,  45;  unit,  8,  9 

Farm  life  in  early  New  Eng- 
land, 8;  present-day  con- 
trasts, 9 

Farm,  problems,  2;  specula- 
tion, II,  12 

Farmer  and  farming,  four 
phases.  See  Household, 
Individualist,  Organized, 
and  Speculative 

Farmer  and  his  wife  in  the 
Sunday-school,  45 

Farmers'  profits  increasing, 
ISO 

Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  123 

Federation,  101 ;  an  ideal, 
121;  of  churches,  no 

Femstrom,  Mr.  George  Koe- 
fod,   translation    made   by, 

65 
Florida,  New  York,  commu- 
nity work  in,  169,  170 


Foght,  Professor  H.  W.,  re- 
ferred to,  52 

Folk  high  schools  in  Den- 
mark, 49,  64,  65,  217-219 

Fourth  of  July  community 
celebration,  19,  178 

"  Frolics "  disapproved  in 
pioneer  churches,  88 


Georgia  schools,  60 

Getting  a  living,  86 

Giving,  38,  40,  94,  139,  140, 
143,  144 

Graded  courses  in  the  Sun- 
day-school, 68 

"Graft"  methods  bring  pen- 
alty, 146 

Grange,  the,  in,  112 

Groton,  Massachusetts,  14 

Groups  can  render  social 
service,  156 

Grundtvig,  Bishop,  influence 
in  Denmark,  50,  217-219; 
song  written  by,  65 

Gulick,  Luther  H.,  quoted,  78 

H 

Harte,  Rollin  Lynde,  referred 

to,  6 
Hayes,  Dr.  Willet  M.,  59 
Hesiod,  referred  to,  42,  43 
High  school,  the,  63 
Holiday  observance,  19 
Hood  Valley,  Oregon,  apples, 

113 
Hook-worm,  17 
Household      farming     phase 

and  Church,  5,  8-1 1,  16,  30- 

36,    87-92,     101-103;    lacks 

community  ideal,  8,  30-35, 

106,  107 
Household    groups    in    New 

England  farm  life,  8;  past 

type,  16 


Index 


233 


Huntsville,  Alabama,  86 

"  Husbandry,"  33 

Hyde,  President  William  De- 
Witt,  a  leader  in  federation 
work,  122;  quoted,  78;  re- 
ferred to,  6 


Ideal,  a  new  country,  18,  19, 
174 ;  needs  to  recognize  lead- 
ership, 180,  181 

Ideal  in  foreign  missions,  193 

Illinois,  household  farming 
era,  30;  State  Experiment 
Station,  58 

Immigrants,  as  a  testing  ele- 
ment, 13 ;  possibilities  and 
needs  of,  170;  evangeliza- 
tion of,  171,  172 

Immigration  from  poorer 
lands,  130 

Improvements,    taxation    for, 

39     . 

Inconsistency,  instances  of 
religious,  90,  91 

Independence  of  the  farmer 
a  separating  force,  5,  8, 
180 

Indiana  schools,  60 

Individual  idealized,  102 

Individualism,  effect  on  the 
family,  6;  in  churches,  25; 
in  country  folk,  5,  6;  in 
Protestantism  a  weakness, 
193 ;  makes  combination 
impossible,  7 

Individualist  or  pioneer  farm- 
ing phase  and  Church,  5- 
8,  16,  25-30;  lack  of  play, 
85,  86;  moral  features,  86, 
87,  loi,  102 

Industrious  poor,  duty  to  the, 
129-139 

Iowa  schools,  60 

Ireland  improving  economic- 
ally, 118 


Italians  in  Grove  City,  Penn- 
sylvania, 171 


Jamesburg,  New  Jersey,  an- 
nual "  Anniversary,"  181 

Jesus  Christ,  45;  authority 
over  individual  soul,  69; 
relation  to  marginal  people, 
158,  161 ;  teachings  as  to  the 
poor  and  marginal  parables, 
130-131,  158-161 

John  Swaney  school,  Putnam 
Co.,  Illinois,  57,  58 

Judson,  Dr.  Edward,  quoted, 
44 

K 

Kern,   Superintendent   O.  J., 

referred  to,  52 
Ketler,  Dr.  Isaac  C,  171 
King,    President    Henry    C, 

quoted,  88 
Kingsley,    Charles,    and    the 

Church  year,  182 
Kirksville,  Missouri,  52 


Labor  Day  celebration,  19 
Lack    of    socializing    experi- 
ence,   178;    consequent   de- 
generacy, 181 
Ladies'  Aid  Societies,  62,  179 
Land-farmer  period,   5.     See 

also  Household  farming 
Land  Grant  Act  of  1862,  61 
Land  tilling,  new  methods  re- 
quired, 43 
Landless,  the,  127;  service  to, 

162 
Landlord   factor  in  problem, 

37,  126,  129 
Leaders,      community,      161- 
165;    in    reconstruction    of 


-234 


Index 


the  country  school,  52;  es- 
sential, 68;  selection  of,  185 

Leadership  and  the  Church, 
i8r 

Lin  Hurie  Chapel,  the,  168 

Literature  of  the  country  life 
problem,  4,  220 

Local  option,  81 

Long  walks  to  school,  58 

M 

Maine,  Church  federation  in, 
122 

Marginal  people:  Christ  and 
the,  158,  160;  Church  rela- 
tion to,  160-173;  in  early 
American  life,  159;  many 
applications  of  idea,  156, 
157;  moral  standards,  132, 
133 ;    parables    illustrating, 

159 

Marginal  values,  43 

Martin,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Wis- 
consin, reorganizes  com- 
munity, 162 

Maryland  farmers,  112 

Mechanic's  living  wage,  a,  145 

Memorial  Day  community 
observance,  19 

Mennonites  in  Pennsylvania, 
19,  106,  132,  136 

Methodists,  131,  132 

Milk  farmer,  the,  43 

Mill-workers    in    Pittsburgh, 

133 
Miners  imported,  13 
Ministerial  training,   163,   164 
Ministers'  motives  for  chang- 
es,   150;   salaries,   144,    145, 
150 
Ministry  to  pioneers,  28 
Minnesota,    creameries,    164 ; 
use    of    stages    for    school 
children,  58,  59 
Missionary  contributions,  140 
Missouri  town,  a  blighted,  15 


Modernized  school,  57 
Money    values    and    country 

life,  93 
Moral   problem,   the,   86,   87, 

96,  97 
Morals    and    temperance    in 

country  life  work,  80,  81 
Mormon  cooperation,  103,  108 
Motion  picture  shows,  16 

N 

National  spirit  of  Denmark, 
"5 

Nebraska  church,  a,  138 

Necessities  of  the  rural 
school,  59 

New  England,  education  in, 
in  the  seventeenth  century, 
49;  Federation  of  Church- 
es, 123;  neglect  of  the  poor, 
136;  town  a  self-governing 
community,  18 

New  Hampshire  State  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture,  114 

New  Testament  teaching,  68 

New  York  City  tenement- 
house  problem,  132 

O 

Oberlin,  John  Frederic,  ex- 
perience of,  104 

Object  of  teaching,  58 

Oklahoma  leasehold  specifica- 
tions, 62 

Old  Home  Week,  19,  182 

Old  Testament  teaching,  68, 
71,  72,  73 

One-room  school,  the,  50,  51 ; 
improvement  needed,  53,  54 

Organization  a  necessity  for 
country  people,  18 

Organized  or  scientific  farm- 
ing phase  and  Church,  5, 
16-20,  41-46,  95-97 

Osborn,  Richard,  of  Quaker 
Hill,  New  York,  120 


Index 


235 


Outlook,  The,  quoted,  2 
Overchurched        community, 
the,  7.  8 


Pacific  Coast  fruit  growers, 

113,  "4 

Parables  illustrating  mar- 
gins, 159 

Pastoral  work  and  the  indi- 
vidualist community,  25,  28 

Pastors'  helps,  156 

Peace  strength  and  war 
strength,  2 

Pennsylvania  Church  fed- 
eration by  counties,  123 

Pennsylvania  Germans,  103, 
105,  106,  108,  136 

Periods  of  American  coun- 
try life,  5,  8,  II,  14,  16 

Persisting  primitive  types,  10 

Personal  work,  29 

Persons,  Dr.  Silas  E.,  work 
of,  166 

Pioneer,  forms  first  type  of 
country  life,  7;  individual- 
ist spirit,  2,  5 ;  without  rec- 
reation, 8s,  88 

Pittsburgh   mill-workers,    133 

Plate  contributions,  139 

Play,  a  new  estimate  of,  78, 
79.  84,  85 

Pledge-signing,  81 

Plunkett,  Sir  Horace,  quoted, 
2,  48,  100;  referred  to,  4, 
103,  104 

Political  trouble,  cause  of,  10 

Poor,  industrious,  127;  sup- 
posed to  be  shiftless,  160; 
to  be  cared  for,  105,  129 

Potentially  wealthy  States, 
129 

Poverty,  131-133;  can  be 
abolished,  134 

Preachers  and  community 
work,  20,  25,  28 


Presbyterian  influence  at 
Rock  Creek,  59 ;  Presby- 
terianism  now  less  con- 
vincing, 121;  Presbyterians, 
131 

Preserving  soil  fertility,  62 

Princeton  graduate  in  Ten- 
nessee, a,  187 

Problem  of  the  poor,  158 

Prohibition,  81 

Prosperity  the  standard  of 
giving,  144 

Public  school  system,  137 

Puritanism  not  now  satisfy- 
ing, 72 


Quaker  Hill,  New  York, 
community  Church,  119, 
120;  help  for  mail  carrier, 
135 

Quaker  principles,  in  school 
consolidation,  59;  in  deal- 
ing with  pauperism,  135 

Quaker  tradition  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 19 

Quakerism  now  less  convinc- 
ing, 72 

R 

Railroad  influence,  9 
Random  giving,  155 
Rasmussen,    Professor   Fred, 

114 
Real  estate  agents,  37 
Reasons  for  organization,  156 
Recreations,   three   principles 

for,  95 
Reformed  Churches,  131 
Religion,    as    related    to    the 
household,    45;    to    morals, 
80;  to  the  pauper,  131,  132; 
to  the  renter,  128;  to  tem- 
perance, 82;  to  work  of  so- 
cial reconstruction,   194-202 
Religious,      idealism,       118; 


236 


Index 


meetings    in    southwestern 
States,    168;    spirit    neces- 
sary, 93 
Remedies  for  rural  decay,  4 
Renter,  the,  37 
Repair  work,   16,  17 
Report  of  the  Country  Life 
Committee,  quoted,  48,  176 
Retired  farmer,  the,  37 
Riding  to  school,  58 
Roberts^  Dr.  Peter,  171 
Rock  Creek  school,  the,  58 
Roman     Catholic     Poles     in 

Florida,  New  York,  169 
Roosevelt,      Theodore,      re- 
ferred to,  3 
Root,  Rev.  E.  Tallmadge,  123 
Ross,   Professor,  quoted,  40, 

94 

Rural  decay,  causes,  3;  rem- 
edies, 4 

Rural  life,  American  condi- 
tions of,  3 

Rural  Life  Problem  in  the 
United  States,  The,  4 

Rural  population  decreases, 
151,  152 

Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
the,  referred  to,  145 

"  Ryed  off  "  lands,  14 


St.  George's  Parish,  New 
York  City,  142 

Salary,  of  the  country  minis- 
ter, 144-150;  of  country 
teachers,  54 

Saloon  influence  to  be  over- 
come, 10,  81,  170 

Salvation  and  selfishness,  7 

Sanitary  reform,  17 

Saved  to  serve,  194 

Schoolhouse  in  Missouri,  15 

Schoolmasters  in  Denmark, 
work  of,  49 

Schools  for  the  country,  13, 
48-65 


Scientific  farming,  17,  41,  150. 
See  also  Organized 

Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyteri- 
ans, 103 

Scotch  settlers  in  Canada,  33 

Scotland  and  origin  of  com- 
mon schools,  49 

Silver  Bay  Conference,  Mis- 
sionary Education  Move- 
ment, 168 

Sins  and  vices  of  pioneer 
days,  86 

Slum  whirlpool,  10 

"  Snowbound,"  Whittier's,  re- 
ferred to,  8 

Social  cooperation,  103 

Social  Forces,  quoted,  134 

Social  influence  of  the  rural 
school,  60 

Social  service,  155;  selection 
in,  16s 

Social  traits  lacking  in  pi- 
oneer women,  26 

Social  unity,  the  country 
church  a  symbol  of,  36 

Soil  depletion,  14 

Southern  farmer,  old  and 
new  style,  129 

Southern  mountain  regrions, 
periodic  revival  in,  28;  in- 
dividualism in,  29 

Speculation  disintegrates,  107 

Speculative  agriculture  in  the 
Middle  West,  93;  moral 
gains  from,  94 

Speculative  farming  phase 
and    Church,   5,    11 -16,   36- 

41,  92-95 
Statistical       Journal,       The, 

quoted,  38 
Story  of  John  Frederic  Oher- 

lin,  The,  105 
Strong,    Josiah,    referred    to, 

6 
Suicides    among   discouraged 

descendants  of  households, 

10 


Index 


237 


Sunday  gatherings  to  the 
country  church,  35 

Sunday-school  as  community 
center  for  religious  edu- 
cation, 45,  46,  48,  68,  6g, 
100,  160;  evangehzing  and 
reconstructive  power,  48, 
65-75;  leaders'  group  meet- 
ing, 69-71 ;  need  of  new  in- 
spiration, 49,  193 

Sunday  singing  in  the  moun- 
tain districts,  27 

Supervision  of  rural  schools, 

54 

Surveys  by  the  Department 
of  Giurch  and  Country 
Life  in  Pennsylvania  and 
in  Illinois,  179 


Town  and  country  schools 
need  to  differ,  56 

Town  attractions  for  coun- 
try people,  178 

Town  meeting,  the,  19 

Trained  superintendents  for 
rural  schools,  55 

Transition  time,  the  minis- 
ter's task  in,  40 

Trustees  and  the  public 
trusts,  89 

Tusculum  College,  Tennes- 
see, 188 

Twenty-third  Psalm,  faith 
of,  133 

Two  community  leaders,  180 

Types  in  American  country 
life,  5 


Taft,  Miss  Anna  B.,   168 
Tag  days  in  Denmark,  117 
Taxation,  new,  39 
Teachers',     practical     action, 

20;  salary,  54 
Team-haul    radius    measures 

community,  56 
Team-work  as  a  training  for 

cooperation,  80 
Temperance      advanced      by 

country   people,   81 ;    needs 

to  add  constructive  work, 

82 
Tenant     farmers,     128,     138; 

and  moral   standards,   133; 

in  the  southern  States,  129 
Tenement-house  problems  in 

New  York  City,  132 
Texas  Church  funds  and  sci- 
entific farming,  62 
Thanksgiving    service    as    a 

community   meeting,   19 
"The  Holy  Earth,"  72 
"Three  R's,"  the,  50,  51 
Tobacco    culture,    exhausting 

soil,  14 


U 

Undenominational        Church, 

the,  no 
Unfederated   religious   stage, 

lOI 

University  of  Missouri,  24 
Unity  and  community,  190 
Unproductive  farms,  9 
Use  of  recreation  organiza- 
tion, 83 


Values  of  farm  land  chang- 
ing, II 

Village  blacksmith,  an  enter- 
prising,  169,  170 

Votes  for  sale,  83 

W 

Waldersbach,  Oberlin  in,  104 

Washington  College,  Tennes- 
see,  188 

Wassaic,  Dutchess  County, 
New  York,  182 

Weakness  of  country  church- 
es, 37 


238 


Index 


Wealthy     church     member's 

large  gift  demoralizing,  138 
Webb,  Principal,  quoted,  129 
Welsh   pastor   and  his   tithe 

system,   141 
Wesley,  John,  quoted,  132 
Westward      emigration      of 

New  England  farm  folk,  6 

38 
Widow's  mite,  the,  140,  142 
Winnebago    County,    Illinois, 

52,  191 
Wisconsin  pastor,  a,  141,  162 
Wisconsin    railway    and    the 

farmers,  162 
Woman  in  pioneer  life,  26 
Work  and  worship,  23 


Working  folk  erect  the 
churches,  138,  142 

World's  fair,  Chicago,  re- 
ferred to,  9 

Worship  the  freest  common 
function,  189 


Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, 39;  in  a  consoli- 
dated rural  school,  59; 
work  for  the  alien,  171 

Young  People's  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor,  31,  160 

Young  Women's  Christian 
Association,  84 


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Watson,  A.  R.  Gray,  L.  B.  Wolf,  G.  F.  Sutherland,  H.  P. 
Douglass. 


The  Forward  Mission  Study  Courses  are  an  outgrowth  of  a 
conference  of  leaders  in  young  people's  mission  work,  held  in 
New  York  City,  December,  1901.  To  meet  the  need  that 
was  manifested  at  that  conference  for  mission  study  text- 
books suitable  for  young  people,  two  of  the  delegates.  Pro- 
fessor Amos  R.  Wells,  of  the  United  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  and  Mr.  S.  Earl  Taylor,  Chairman  of  the  General 
Missionary  Committee  of  the  Epworth  League,  projected  the 
Forward  Mission  Study  Courses.  These  courses  have  been 
officially  adopted  by  the  Missionary  Education  Movement, 
and  are  now  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  Editorial 
Committee  of  the  Movement.  The  books  of  the  Movement 
are  now  being  used  by  more  than  forty  home  and  foreign 
mission  boards  and  societies  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

The  aim  is  to  publish  a  series  of  text-books  covering  the 
various  home  and  foreign  mission  fields  and  written  by  lead- 
ing authorities. 

The  following  text-books  having  a  sale  of  900,000  have 
been  published : 

I.  The  Price  of  Africa.  (Biographical.)  By  S.  Earl 
Taylor. 


2.  Into  All  the  World.  A  general  survey  of  missions. 
By  Amos  R.  Wells. 

3.  Princely  Men  in  the  Heavenly  Kingdom.  (Biograph- 
ical.)    By  Harlan  P.  Beach. 

4.  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom.  A  study  of  Japan. 
By  John  H.   DeForest. 

5.  Heroes  of  the  Cross  in  America.  Home  Missions. 
(Biographical.)     By  Don  O.  Shelton. 

6.  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent.  A  study  of  Africa. 
By  Wilson    S.    Naylor. 

7.  The  Christian  Conquest  of  India.  A  study  of  India. 
By  James  M.  Thoburn. 

8.  Aliens  or  Americans?  A  study  of  Immigration.  By 
Howard   B.   Grose. 

9.  The  Uplift  of  China.  A  study  of  China.  By  Arthur 
H.  Smith. 

10.  The  Challenge  of  the  City.  A  study  of  the  City. 
By  Josiah  Strong. 

11.  The  Why  and  How  of  Foreign  Missions.  A  study 
of  the  relation  of  the  home  Church  to  the  foreign  missionary 
enterprise.     By  Arthur  J.  Brown. 

12.  The  Moslem  World.  A  study  of  the  Mohammedan 
World.     By  Samuel  M.  Zwemer. 

13.  The  Frontier.  A  study  of  the  New  West.  By  Ward 
Piatt. 

14.  South  America:  Its  Missionary  Problems.  A  study 
of  South  America.     By  Thomas  B.  Neely. 

15.  The  Upward  Path:  The  Evolution  of  a  Race.  A 
study  of  the  Negro.    By  Mary  Helm. 

16.  Korea  in  Transition.  A  study  of  Korea.  By  James 
S.  Gale. 

17.  Advance  in  the  Antilles.  A  study  of  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico.    By  Howard  B.  Grose. 

18.  The  Decisive  Hour  of  Christian  Missions.  A  study 
of  conditions  throughout  the  non-Christian  world.  By  John 
R.   Mott.  I 

19.  India  Awakening.  A  study  of  present  conditions  in 
India.     By   Sherwood   Eddy. 

20.  The  Church  of  the  Open  Country.  A  study  of  the 
problem  of  the  rural  Church.    By  Warren  H.  Wilson. 

In  addition  to  these  courses,  the  following  have  been  pub- 
lished especially   for  use  among  younger  persons : 

1.  Uganda's  White  Man  of  Work.  The  story  of  Alex- 
ander Mackay  of  Africa.     By  Sophia  Lyon  Fahs. 

2.  Servants  of  the  King.  A  series  of  eleven  sketches 
of  famous  home  and  foreign  missionaries.  By  Robert  E. 
Speer. 


3.  Under  Marching  Orders.  The  story  of  Mary  Porter 
Gamewell  of  China.     By  Ethel  Daniels  Hubbard. 

4.  Winning  the  Oregon  Country.  The  story  of  Marcus 
Whitman  and  Jason  Lee  in  the  Oregon  Country.  By  John  T. 
Faris. 

These  books  are  published  by  mutual  arrangement  among 
the  home  and  foreign  mission  boards,  to  whom  all  orders 
should  be  addressed.  They  are  bound  uniformly  and  are 
sold  at  50  cents,  in  cloth,  and  35  cents,  in  paper;  postage, 
8  cents  extra. 


university  ot  CalHornja 


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..M»2^^''^^''      BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 
ILOSANOCLES.  CALIF. 


